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121
[1909
contracted the disease from her father, while a woman, 35 years old, was also
infected, from whom another woman, 38 years old, contracted the disease.
All these patients lived in one house. Another case, that of a man living at
Friern Barnet, visited the first mentioned of the Tottenham cases, and was
taken ill on December 31st and removed to hospital. The result of these
attacks was that in Islington, in Tottenham, and in Friern Barnet it became
necessary to keep a considerable number of persons, who had been in contact
with those who were stricken with the disease under observation until its incubation
period had expired. The several authorities in whose districts these cases
occurred are to be congratulated that the infection was in each instance so
speedily nipped in the bud.
This small outbreak offers a good illustration of how small pox may be
spread from one part of Europe to another. In this case, had it not been for the
continual cross-examination W— C— underwent before his removal to hospital,
during his detention there, and following his discharge therefrom, the origin
of these cases would have remained a mystery. One of the contacts,
who very much resented the pressure that was put on him to prevent
his going to work procured employment in a very healthy rural district in
Kent, whither he proposed to go, and had not the Medical Officer of Health
threatened to write to the Medical Officer of Health there, he would have gone,
with the result that to a certainty he would have conveyed the disease to
that place, for he himself was attacked some days later. Indeed, were it not
that the Medical Officer of Health promised to allow him £1 per week to support
himself and his wife and child, for he had no means, he would have gone away
in defiance of the advice that had been given him. There is no doubt that that
Rural District escaped a visitation of small pox owing to the means adopted
in Islington.
There is another interesting fact connected with this outbreak, and it is
this: that W— C—'s children, being vaccinated, escaped small pox. The
circumstances under which the youngest had been vaccinated are noteworthy,
and are as follows:—When the time arrived for the vaccination of the child,
the father applied to Mr. Fordham, at the North London Police Court, for an
exemption certificate, but the Magistrate, feeling that he had not put forward a
serious conscientious objection against vaccination, postponed his application
for a fortnight. By that time W— C—, the father, had obtained employment,
and preferred to do without the certificate rather than lose half a day's work;
consequently the child was vaccinated. Now, it is a remarkable circumstance
that the only unvaccinated child (W—F—) in the house was attacked, although,
so far as could be ascertained, there had been no contact with W— C—.
There can be little doubt in anyone's mind that, considering that W— C— was