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death rate on the estimated population is 0.09. The corresponding
rate for the County of London is 0.08. In May the Medical
Officer for the City of London informed me that a number of
disused army blankets from South Africa had been purchased by
two wholesale firms in his district and that numbers of these had
been sold to common lodging-house keepers and others; moreover,
that several cases of typhoid fever had been traced to the use of
these infected blankets. Careful enquiry was made in Bethnal
Green and some of these blankets were discovered. They were
at once disinfected and several were destroyed as the owners did
not wish them returned. No case of illness was traced to the
use of these blankets in Bethnal Green.
On October 31st the manager of q printing works aged 55
died at the Eastern Hospital. This man was originally under
the care of Dr. Berdoe, of Hackney Road, for an internal abscess,
and was by him sent to the London Hospital, where enteric fever
was diagnosed. The patient was transferred to Homerton, but
Dr. Goodall, the Medical Superintendent, reported that the case
was not one of enteric fever or any other notifiable disease, but
that the man had symptoms highly significant of Glanders,
inasmuch as an abscess he had opened contained the specific
bacillus of Glanders (B. Mallei). The specimen was sent on to Dr.
Cartwright Wood, the Bacteriologist, who confirmed the
diagnosis of Glanders, which is an equine disease. I carefully
investigated the circumstances of this case but was assured that
the patient had not been in any way in contact with horses and
had not even ridden in a Hansom cab for years. The source of
infection remains a mystery.
From the North sub-district twenty-eight cases were reported,
from the South eleven, and from the East eighteen; 49 of the
cases were removed to hospital, five of which number were returned
as incorrectly diagnosed.
The Inspectors report that in twenty-three instances the
premises were in a satisfactory condition, in seven the W.C.'s