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The histories of Kensington cases were duly set out in the successive monthly reports, but
brief reference may be made here to certain groups of cases in illustration of modes of spread of the
disease:—
(1) A lad, employed in another borough, the nature of whose slight illness was not recognized,
infected five inmates of the house in which he resided. (No. 9 Report, 1901, page 122.)
(2) A gentleman, living in furnished apartments, the nature of whose indisposition was
not recognized, infected a charwoman employed at the house, also his landlady and her niece.
The charwoman's case was the first to be notified. She, in turn, infected a man with whom she
cohabited, and a sister. (Cases 11—16, No. 1 Report, 1902, page 5.)
(3) A man, employed at Grays, in Essex, an infected district, came home ill and infected
his son and daughter. (Cases 23—25, No. 2 Report, page 23.)
(4) Two brothers, engaged in work at Dagenham Small-pox Hospital, contracted the
disease, which they developed at home in Kensington. (Cases 39—40, No. 3 Report, page 58.)
(5) A horsekeeper and a post-office official, infected at a house in another borough, developed
the disease in Kensington. (Cases 41 and 42, No. 3 Report, page 58.)
(6) Two lodgers, and the night deputy, at a common lodging-house, apparently contracted
the disease from a previous unrecognized case in the same dormitory (Cases 30 and 31, No. 2
Report, page 23 ; case 32, No. 3 Report, page 57.)
(7) A man from Dartford, at a common lodging-house, infected before arrival in the
borough, was the source of infection to the bedmaker. (Case 57, No. 4 Report, page 85, and
case 67, No. 5 Report, page 97.)
(8) A man, who had an illness variously described as "measles" and as "blood-poisoning,"
infected his mother and his sister. (Cases 54—56, No. 4 Report, page 85.)
(9) A woman in attendance at a general hospital had come into contact with a male outpatient
in a highly infectious condition.* The nature of this woman's consequent slight illness
was not recognized, the result being that two persons contracted the disease from her. One
of them was removed to the Western Fever Hospital for supposed "scarlet fever," which
proved to be hæmorrhagic small-pox, to which he soon succumbed. (Cases 51—53, No. 4 Report,
page 85.)
(10) Two children (unvaccinated) who fell ill simultaneously (no history of infection), infected
two other children in the same house. (Cases 58 and 59, No. 4 Report, page 86, and
cases 62 and 63, No. 5 Report, page 96.)
(11) An anonymous letter led to discovery of six cases in one house. The first case was
that of a boy, the nature of whose illness there is reason to believe was known (or suspected)
by his mother, whom, as well as four other persons, he infected. (Cases 73 to 78, No. 6 Report,
page 106.)
(12) A carman (source of his infection unknown) infected his wife and two children.
(Cases 81—84, No. 6 Report, page 107.)
(13) Three days after arrival in the borough, a boy fell ill; the disease was not recognized.
He infected three other members of the family, from whom four sisters, in another house, contracted
the disease, and in a third house the fiance of one of them. (Cases 88 to 91, No. 6
Report, page 197, and cases 93 to 97, No. 7 Report, page 124.)
(14) Two men were infected by their father, whom they had visited before his removal to
hospital; a third son, who had slept with his father, escaped. (Cases 101—103, No. 8 Report,
page 138.)
Amongst individual cases the following are deserving of reference, some of them as indicating sources
of infection outside the Borough:—
Cases 1 and 2 (No. 13 Report, 1901, page 176) imported from another Borough.
Case 3 (No. 13 Report, page 177). A youth employed in Kensington fell ill simultaneously
with a fellow employé, who resided in another borough, whose two brothers, moreover,
were stricken at the same time. The obviously common source of infection was not traced.
Case 4 (No. 14, page 195) was on a visit in another borough at the date of infection.
Case 5 (No. 14, page 195), employed in another Borough as a bedmaker at a Rowton
House where there were cases of small-pox, was sent home with the premonitory symptoms
of small-pox.
Case 6 (No. 14, page 195) was infected at the Casual Ward in another borough, before
coming to reside at a Boys' Home in Kensington.
* Another woman (case 50) who had come in contact with this same man was notified as chicken-pox, but was found to
be suffering from small-pox and sent to hospital. There were cases in other boroughs, owning the same origin.