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28
E. S. was suffering from mild small-pox and not chicken-pox, it
would appear that she also contracted her complaint at or about the
end of August. The ordinary incubation period of small-pox is
12-14 days, after which follow two or three days of premonitory
symptoms-—headache, back-ache, fever, and sometimes vomiting—
which in their turn are immediately followed by the characteristic
rash. From careful enquiry I should, therefore, expect that both
these individuals came in the way of small-pox infection about the
end of August, Mrs. C. severely so, and E. S. less severely so.
In any case, there is evidence to show that at the end of her visit
to Bodiam, E. S. left behind in the hop-pickers' huts some kind of
infection which had not existed on the farm before, and which it seems
impossible to trace to any other source. For on Monday, September
23rd (a fortnight after the illness of E. S.), Mrs. P. reported to
the manager of the farm that one of her children was ill, and on the
following day her baby (16 months old) was similarly ill. The nearest
medical man was consulted, and he formed the opinion that the
complaint was " chicken-pox." A day or two later the baby
became much worse and there appeared " a rash under its skin." A
small boy (aged seven) was also taken seriously ill, and Mrs. P. decided
to return at once to London with the sick children. This she did on
Friday evening, September 27th. Being convinced that the illness
was of a serious nature, she took the children direct to the Royal
Free Hospital in Grays Inn Road, where they were found to be
suffering from small-pox. (Nos. 5 and 6.) They were removed at
midnight to the Small-pox Ships. Mrs. P. and her sister, M. H.,
then returned to their home in Vineyard Walk. On Saturday,
September 28th, M. H. was taken ill and notified to me as suffering
from small-pox (No. 7). I received the three notifications of the
two children and of M. H., aged 19, at noon, on Saturday, and at
once visited the house to make some preliminary investigations.
There I learned after careful enquiry that Mrs. P. had arrived the
previous night from a farm in the Bodiam district, and there were
several children at the same farm suffering from a similar complaint
to her own children, that all the hop-pickers in that district were
returning to London that night, and that the particular families
affected would probably arrive in the evening at Cannon Street