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10
Being, however, doubtful as to the value of the figures
I deemed it necessary to extend the investigation to another
year, when the disease was epidemic, viz., 1882, and also to
the deaths in 1882 and 1886, which has been done with the
following results:—In 1882 cases were reported from 287
houses, of which 18 or 6.3 per cent. were in the ¼-mile radius,
the proportion of houses in this radius to the total number of
houses in the district, being 6.1 per cent. Cases were reported
also from 35 houses, or 12.2 per cent. of the total infected
between the ¼ and ½-mile radii, which contained l5.0 per cent.
of all the houses; 36 or 124 per cent. of the houses situated
between the £ and ¾-mile radii and 49 or 17.1 per cent. between
the ¾ and 1-mile radii were infected, making 29.6 per cent.
between the ½ and 1-mile radii, in which there were 31.5 per
cent. of the total houses. Fifty-one and nine-tenths per cent,
of the houses infected were situated outside the 1-mile radius,
whilst only 474 per cent. of all the houses were situated in
this portion of the district. This return is quite different to
the one for 1886, and goes far to show that the injurious
influence of the Hospital, if any, is very small. There
certainly was a difference in the Hospital arrangements in
1886 as compared with 1882, viz., that in the former year there
were not any small-pox patients in the Hospital, whilst there
were in the latter year, viz., 1882. Indeed, in 1882, no less
than 12 small-pox cases occurred amongst the scarlet fever
patients in the fever wards, some time after their admission, but
so far as I know there were no cases of scarlet fever amongst
the small-pox patients. Everything, therefore, points to a
much greater risk of infection and consequent danger from
small-pox than from scarlet fever patients, and the greater
necessity for treating the former in hospitals situated away
from crowded districts. I append a table showing the proportion
of houses attacked in the different radii to the number
of houses contained in each.