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In another tenement house, No. 2, Clark's Buildings, which contained at the time of the
receipt of the first notification 25 persons, there were seven cases of small-pox. These arose
through a child who had the disease. The father and mother stated they thought it was chickenpox
and did not call in a doctor. On the 2lst February two cases were notified, viz., a male
aged 18 years, not vaccinated, and a male aged 33 years, who had been vaccinated only in infancy.
The father and mother and a brother and sister of the former had fortunately been vaccinated or
re-vaccinated about a month previously, the wife of the latter had been vaccinated recently, and a
child of the latter was also vaccinated, so that the disease did not spread in these families.
On making room to room enquiries throughout the house some children of another family
were found concealed in one of the basement rooms with well marked scabs of small-pox. This
family consisted of father, mother, and eight children, the ages of the children varying from
19 years to 10 months. The first child that had been attacked with small-pox was a girl 12 years
of age who was unvaccinated, Her rash first appeared about the 1st February. The father had
been re-vaccinated six years previously, and the three elder girls, aged 19, 17 and 14 respectively
had been re-vaccinated about a month previously, and they all remained well. All the younger
children, aged 10 months, 2½ 5 and 7 years respectively, were all unvaccinated at the time of
nfection. The two former had not been vaccinated at all, and the two latter were not vaccinated
until after infection, a few days before the discovery of the cases. In the four younger children
the rash appeared about the 13th and 14th February. With the exception of those who contracted
small-pox, there was no unvaccinated person in the house. The promises were thoroughly
disinfected, ana there was no further case of small-pox.
At No. 24a, High Street, on the ground floor of which was a stationer's shop, the remainder
of the house being let in tenements, there were six cases of small-pox out of 18 persons who
occupied the house. My attention was first called to this house on the 24th December, 1901, by
an undertaker, who informed me that he had been requested to bury the body of a person that he
thought might have died from small-pox. On visiting the premises 1 found that the body was
that of a man aged 39 years, who had died from hæmorrhagic small-pox. This person's illness
began on the 18th December, and the rash appeared on the 20th; he had been attended by a
doctor, but the case was not notified until after I saw the doctor respecting the same. The
wife of the deceased had only been vaccinated in infancy, and was re-vaccinated the following day,
December 25th. The two children, boys aged 6 and 1 year 4 mouths, had fortunately been
vaccinated in infancy, and did not contract small-pox. The deceased's wife was removed on the
2nd January, 1902, as soon as the rash appeared, she unfortunately not having been re-vaccinated
until some days after infection.
The next case was that of a girl 7 years old, the daughter of an anti-vaccinator, who had
refused re-vaccination for himself and children on the 24th December when I had the information
of the first case in the house. This patient was removed on Monday the 6th January, 1902,
and had not been vaccinated at all until two days previously, i.e., not until eleven or twelve
days after infection. The other children of the family were vaccinated for the first time on
Sunday the 5th January, 1902. Two other cases were also removed from this house on this
day, the sister-in-law of the first case (deceased), this patient at first refused re-vaccination on
December 24th, but was re-vaccinated on January 2nd, the date on which her sister was removed,
and the wife of the anti-vaccinator, the mother of the child before mentioned, she was 42 years
of age, and had only been vaccinated in infancy.
On the 9th January, the husband, age 46, a well-known anti-vaccinator, was removed.
He had previously informed me that he had had small-pox when a child.
Eighteen cases of small-pox were traced to have had their origin from the first case which
had not been diagnosed and notified by the doctor in attendance until after I had made enquiries
of him respecting the case. The deceased's wife and her two children instead of coming to our
shelter during the disinfection of her rooms, as promised, went to sleep with some friends in
a small tenement house in Denmark Place, and two cases of small-pox were removed from this
family about a fortnight later. One of the undertaker's men who, notwithstanding my advice,