Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell.
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to a fine; and, further, the final determination of the court may be
suspended if the Borough Council will undertake to adopt such
means as the court may deem practicable for abating the nuisance.
(b) It will be noticed in Dr. Bruce's report (August 11th) which
deals with the period between July 28th and August 11th, there is a
statement that northerly winds were prevalent. This statement
apparently implies that the direction of the wind has a bearing on
the number of cases of enteritis which are due to infective dust.
The relative positions of the trucks and wards are such that the
only winds which might convey dust are (giving a wide margin)
those between a little to the north of west and a little to the west
of north. These blow toward Blocks E, F, G, and H. Referring
to the Greenwich meteorological table, I find that between July 28th
and August 11th the wind was between north and west on one day
only (August 10th), the prevailing wind for that period being from
an easterly direction.
The attacks usually occurred at irregular intervals, but there
were four occasions when there were groups of cases. These were
July 24th, 25th, and 26th, on each of which days there was no
north-west in the wind, and between the two days before the 24th
the wind was west-north-west and north-west on the mornings of
the 22nd and 23rd. The next was August 3rd, 4th, and 5th—the
last of the north-west wind being July 23rd, except that it is marked
as having been variable on August 4th. On August 8th and 9th
there were three attacks, but the wind had not been between
north and west since July 23rd. From the 22nd to the 25th there
were five cases, the last occasions for a wind between west and north
being August 13th and 14th, except that on the afternoon of the
24th the direction of the wind is given as west, north-west, and
west-south-west.
The last series started on August 28th, and comprised three
cases; the last occasion for a favourable wind being August 24th
in the afternoon.
It is therefore clear that when the greater sequence of cases has
happened the wind has been in an unfavourable direction for the
presumed conveyance of infective material.
The children and infants were housed in the following Blocks,
E, F, G and H, each Block comprising three wards numbered 1, 2.
and 3, and the nearest to the siding are H and F. The nearest
points of the G and E wards, in which 14 out of the 38 cases
occurred, are over 100 yards from the siding, so that infection to be
conveyed by dust to children in these blocks would have to be
carried above 40 yards further than to those in F and H.
Except in the case of wards F3 and 2 and H3, which are specially
set apart for children, the children are accommodated in cots along,
the centres of the wards, but in the children's wards before mentioned
the cots are set round the walls.
Dr. Bruce has stated that the distance of 85 paces is sufficient
to bring the smell right into the wards, but 85 paces has been
stated in a previous report by one of us to be by measurement 55
to 60 yards. Tailing as one point the nearest point of siding where