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47
for the protection of the country. The danger by the importation
of infected merchandise is probably the greater, as it is
also the more subtle of the two. Reference is needless to the
ravages of this terrible disease before the Great Fire, in 1666,
purged, at once, the air and the soil of London. Should the
plague re-appear in this country we need not fear any such
developments as characterised its progress when as yet sanitation
was an unknown science. In comments on the subject
in the first monthly report, whilst no word was said to
create panic, it was stated that it would be folly to suppose
that there was no danger. True wisdom, it was observed,
"suggests the desirability of setting our house in order—a
policy which in any case would bring its own reward. The
course to be adopted is a simple one, and one which might
almost be summed up in the apt motto adopted by our Commissioners
for Baths and Washhouses, viz., 'Wash and be
Clean for plague can find no permanent home amongst a
well-fed community living clean lives in clean surroundings.
Where the ordinary laws of health are observed, and sanitation
is duly carried out, though sporadic cases may occur,
there is little fear of an epidemic. But where the laws of health
are disregarded, and where people herd under conditions too
common in many parts of London—west as well as east—
where there is overcrowding, and the surroundings in-doors
and out-of-doors are filthy, there danger may be apprehended.
What is most needed, in view of the possible danger, is frequent
house-to-house visitation of the squalid homes of the
impoverished masses, followed by such measures of purification,
and general aid, as may be effected through the operation of
public law and private beneficence." No action was taken:
nor did any further cause for alarm arise.
INFLUENZA.
Forty-four deaths were registered from influenza, as compared
with 20,115, and 20, in the preceding three years respectively.
Thirty-three of the deaths occurred in the Town
sub-district and 11 in Brompton. The deaths in London from
this cause were 671, against 727, 2,117, and 491 in the three
preceding years, and 398 below the corrected decennial average.