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45
from the same rare and highly infectious fever, the question
naturally arose, whether the one had attended and the other
buried any person who had died from typhus ? This actually
turned out to be case, and we had not long to wait for
the desired clue ; for the same afternoon brought from Dr.
Potter, medical superintendent of the parish infirmary, three
notifications of typhus, in a man and his wife and their only
child, who had been removed from Western Dwellings, Flat
19, comprising two rooms and a scullery, the cases being
certified for admission as influenza. Dr. Potter, it should be
stated, had been put upon the alert by a telephone-message
from Dr. Ensor, medical officer for No. 2 district, who had
received a communication from Dr. Bruce, intimating the
nature of Dr. Davis's illness, and who had begun to suspect that
certain cases which he had attended at Western Dwellings,
as influenza, might have been typhus. Dr. Potter recognised
typhus in all three cases, and they were forthwith removed
to the South-Eastern Hospital. These facts did not become
known to me till later in the day. Meanwhile, turning to the
weekly returns of causes of death, I ascertained that at Flat 20,
Western Dwellings, a woman had died on February 27th,
and that the cause of death, as certified by Dr. Davis, was
" influenza (12 days), pneumonia (8 days)." Suspicion was
instantly aroused that the supposed "influenza" might really
have been typhus. I lost no time in visiting Western Dwellings,
accompanied by Dr. Ensor, to whom Dr. Davis had been
assistant. It was seen that Flats 19 and 20 face one another (at
a distance of ten feet) on the second floor; and the information
communicated by Dr. Ensor led irresistibly to the conclusion
(in which he concurred) that typhus fever had been
in unrecognised existence at Flat 20 since Christmas, 1897
Piecing together the information received from a variety of
sources, the story was made out which is fully detailed in the
third four-weekly report (March 30th, page 32). The particulars
of the first case may be repeated here :—