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1909]
120
SMALL POX.
Three cases of Small Pox were notified during the last weeks of the year.
The first was W— F—, male, age 7 years, unvaccinated, living at 29 Victor
Road, who on December 13th was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital with
an eruption on the thigh. On the 14th the patient was worse, and on the
15th, as the rash was spreading rapidly a doctor was called in to see him at
home, and he in turn, on the 18th, called in another medical practitioner in
consultation, when they decided that the case was one of Small Pox.
Investigation of the case revealed the fact that the disease had been contracted
from a man named W— C—, 29 years, vaccinated in infancy, living in
the same house, on whose back the Medical Officer of Health on making
an examination, found some pustules which had not thoroughly
healed. He, therefore, had him removed to hospital, whither the other
patient had previously been taken. Another case, E— F—, female, 28 years,
vaccinated in infancy, living also at 29, Victor Road, took ill on the
30th December, and was removed to hospital the same day. A fourth case,
which properly does not come within this year's record, was detected by the
Medical Officer of Health, who, after a consultation with Dr. Wanklyn, the
Medical Officer appointed for special purposes by the London County Council,
had the case removed to hospital.
The history of these cases is of interest. It appears that W— C— was a
member of a troupe called the Gordon Highlanders Troupe, which had been
travelling on the Continent. When at Warsaw during November, a clown
belonging to a troupe named the Flataleni Brothers, who dressed in the room
next to that occupied by W— C— at the "Cirkus Ciniselli," was taken ill,
died in the course of a few days, and was buried on November 15th, the
disease being stated to be "Black Pox." On the same day, the
Gordon Highlander Troupe left Warsaw for Danzig, where on the 26th
W— C—, feeling ill, consulted a doctor, who, although he did not diagnose
small pox, offered him hospital accommodation. W— C—, however, asked him
if he could travel to England, and was informed that if he kept himself well
wrapped up he might do so without danger. He therefore, started the same
day for home via the Hook of Holland and Harwich, and arrived in England on
the 28th, when he consulted a doctor, who, on the 30th certified
that he was suffering from Chicken Pox. Thus this case was not diagnosed as
the more serious disease, and unfortunately, the above-mentioned persons were
infected. Unhappily, the infection did not end in Islington, for during his
convalescence W— C— was visited by a person living in Tottenham, who
contracted the disease from him This man's child, 9 months old, unvaccinated,