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 Hanover Square, The Vestry of the Parish of Saint George]
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the reception of contagion to develop itself, and as the
deceased had just returned from a visit into Norfolk, it
seems that he must have taken it whilst travelling. The
attack itself, as we learn from Mr. Young, the medical
attendant, was of the most virulent nature conceivable.
Yet the deceased had been well vaccinated when a child;
in fact, as we are informed, he was the child first vaccinated
in Florence, in 1810, when Jenner's discovery
was first promulgated in Italy. It is worth recording,
that a young man of 19, son of the undertaker, became
infected whilst superintending the last offices to the body
of the deceased; yet this young man, as we learn from
Mr. Young, was well vaccinated when an infant; notwithstanding
which, he had small-pox at the age of one
year and nine months, and now again, spite of the double
protection he may be supposed to enjoy, he takes the
small-pox a second time in its most virulent shape, and
just escapes with his life, marked from head to foot, and
with one eye almost lost. It is worthy of remark, that
the woman who removed the rings from the body, incautiously
infected one eye, and nearly lost the sight of it
through the violent suppuration which ensued. Without
anticipating what we shall have to say hereafter, we may
remark here, that if vaccination be not a perfect preservative,
so neither is the small-pox itself, against a
second attack; and that the liability of every one to
second attacks of this class of diseases, is becoming daily
a better established fact; hence, that the task of hunting
out and exterminating the fever poisons, must be pursued
with double energy.
Three deaths occurred from the same disease in the
Belgrave Sub-district. A man cook, who came from
Paris on September 27th, fell decidedly ill on the 28th,