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29
Someone who had been in contact with this bargeman patronised a
barber in the City, and one (d) of the assistants apparently had a mild
attack, but this was not discovered until he had recovered, when
another assistant (e) developed the complaint. This also was of so
mild a nature that he continued his work for three days with the
eruption out on him, when a medical man whom he was shaving
recognised the malady. No further cases came to my knowledge as a
result of these two cases. Still, the disease spread in other directions
from one or other of the cases infected by the bargeman. The first of these
was a young woman (f) living in Laundry Yard, and she was followed
by two sisters (g and h) and a niece (i). In connection with this group
of cases considerable difficulty was encountered in ascertaining the
number of persons in the house, in obtaining admission, and finding
where the girl (h) was employed. The first case (f) was at home for
eleven days after the beginning of the illness, and this last ease was
concealed for a week after the appearance of the eruption, and
eventually it was discovered that she had been to work as an ironer at
a large laundry in the City, and had infected a woman (j) who worked
beside her. A boy (k) who played with the brothers of (g) and (h) was
found by me in a large tenement house, being treated by a medical man
for measles. The rash bad evidently been out for a week, and was of a
most typical description. Another case (l) was a resident in a common
lodging-house in the neighbourhood, and was probably infected from (a).
His case proved fatal. A second man (m) was notified in the same
house three days after (l), but he had only arrived there the day before
from one of H.M. prisons, where he had been for seven days, and there
is no history of his having been in the neighbourhood during the
preceding week.
Five cases occurred in the City during December. One of these (m)
has already been referred to in the previous report; two other cases
(n and o) were traceable to the Laundry Yard group, one a man, the
other an unvaccinated child. Three other cases were apparently
infected while inmates of a general Hospital by a visitor; both left
the Hospital on the 5th December, one went to a Convalescent Home
at Birchington-on-Sea, the eruption came out on the 12th, she was not
seen by any medical man, and travelled up to London on the 15th by
train, returning to the Hospital when she was at once notified. The
other woman went into St. George's Infirmary, where she eventually
developed the complaint.
Three additional cases occurred in the same neighbourhood in the
early part of January, 1904, and finished this series of cases.
In connection with the circumstance mentioned above, in the
Laundry Yard group of cases, the Council summoned the mother for