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there his wife had an illness which was looked upon as the result of
eating ice-cream while overheated, but it was evident that it was a
mild attack of small-pox.
Mr. Elkerton, the Vaccination Officer, made inquiries as to the
number of unvaccinated persons in the schools and houses affected. A
considerable portion of the adult population were re-vaccinated last
year, and thus less interference was necessary with regard to persons
going to work than was the case in 1902.
In August, an unvaccinated young woman, a servant at an hotel, a
patient in one of the general hospitals, was found to be suffering from
small-pox, which she had probably contracted when on a visit to
friends in an infected area outside the City. A man and his wife both
contracted the complaint from visiting a daughter ill with it in
Lambeth.
In October, two fresh cases of infection occurred, one of which was
restricted to three cases, but the other gave rise to eighteen others. In
the former the case came from Wiltshire, the eruption appearing on
arrival in London, and a child, who had been sleeping in the same bed,
has subsequently had a slight feverish attack, probably varioloid in its
nature, and treated as such; a person in an adjoining Borough who
had been with these persons in the country also developed small-pox on
coming to London. A number of business premises and private houses
had been visited by them, but no further cases have occurred in
connection therewith; the persons therein were either promptly
re-vaccinated or had been re-vaccinated during the last two years.
The latter outbreak arose as follows:—
From the Medical Officer of Ware I learned that a man had been
on a barge there, suffering from small-pox, and that he had been at a
wharf adjoining Millbank for a few days about the 5th October. On
enquiry I found that he had kept to his cabin most of the time, but on
one occasion at least had visited a public-house in the neighbourhood,
and a man who visited him on the 5th observed that he had an
eruption on his face. A number of persons were kept under observation
in consequence; most of the men employed on the wharf had been
re-vaccinated during the last year or two and none of them contracted
the disease. Three persons residing in the neighbourhood were seized
with illness about the 17th October, which would give the usual
incubation period of twelve days. One of these was (a) the manager of
a public house (said to have been vaccinated in infancy but with
no marks), another (b) an unvaccinated child of five years of age, and
the third (c) a married woman aged 38 (since dead) who had had a
previous attack of small-pox at the age of 7 years. This woman did
some washing, which possibly came from the barge above mentioned.