View report page

THE SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC OF 1901=2:
A RETROSPECT.
A few cases of small-pox, and a very few deaths from this cause,
continue to be notified and registered week-by-week, but for all
practical purposes the epidemic of 1901-2 may be considered at an
end. On September 6th, there were only 95 cases under treatmentall
at Long Reach (temporary) Hospital. The Hospital Ships were
finally closed in July. The Gore Farm Hospitals have been vacated.
The Orchard (temporary) Hospital, although furnished and made
ready for patients, was never opened.
The present time, therefore, would seem to be appropriate for a
review of the epidemic as it affected Kensington, and other parti of
the Metropolis, summarised from the thirteen four-weekly reports,
for the period of 52 weeks commenced August 11th, 1901, and ended
August 9th, 1902.
Prior to the former date there had been, in 1901, only one case
of small-pox in the borough —that of a gentleman who had become
infected in Paris,* whilst in London the total cases notified were only
41, all told. Since the latter date, and during the period covered by
this report, only 73 cases have been notified, including one in
Kensington, early in the month of August.
During the intervening period of 52 weeks, the notifications of
cases in Kensington were 106, and the deaths, including three of nonparishioners,
12. The notifications in London, as a whole, were
9,335, the deaths 1,518, of which all but 86 occurred in hospital.
Tables A and B, of Notifications and Deaths, in the several
boroughs (pages 163 and 164), show the rise, the progress, and the
decline of the epidemic. Table C (page 165) summarises the
statistics.
All things considered, Kensington has come very well out of the
trouble—thanks, largely, to the fairly well-vaccinated condition of
the population.
Hampstead and Chelsea had the fewest notified cases (26 and 44
respectively) proportionally to population. Kensington comes next.
The small-pox death-rate was lowest in Kensington if the deaths of
non-parishioners are excluded, viz., 0.5 per 10,000.
Table D, at page 166, shows the number of cases in the Borough,
as a whole, and in the Registration Sab-districts, the Parliamentary
Divisions and the nine Wards.
* See No. 1 Monthly Report, 1901, page 4. In this connection it may be mentioned that the epidemic was thought to have originated, in August, through the
importation of cases from Paris; and to have been spread by infected clothing,
among the employees at a suburban laundry. The boroughs first to be severely
affected were St. Pancras and St, Marylebone.