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In the above table I include 7 private cases and all the cases of cholera
which happened in the last days of July. Of the 36 first cases 26
proved fatal; of the 9 in the next week, 4 were fatal; and of the 6 next,
4 were fatal. None of the 5 last have yet died. Of the 41 first cases
of choleraic diarrhoea, 6 died, all the rest have recovered.
Now there is something very remarkable in the above Table, and
that is the sudden outburst of cholera, almost confined to two small
districts, viz,: the neighbourhood of Elder Walk and a limited
portion of Lower Holloway, and the almost equally sudden subsidence
of the disease in the week following August 4th. This is not the
ordinary progress of Cholera. It looks very much like the
result of the energetic process of "stamping out" which I took
the liberty of adopting immediately on the occurrence of the
earliest cases, upon my own responsibility, which the Diseases' Prevention
Committee, at their first meeting, approved, and which has since
then been actively pursued with their concurrence. I believe that
the establishment of the Dispensary in the centre of the infected
district at Elder Walk, and the active house-to-house visitation there
have been of incalculable service in the detection and treatment of
of premonitory symptoms, and, with the other measures adopted, have
saved the parish from an outbreak in that neighbourhood to which our
56 cases would have been a bagatelle. With the aid of the additional
sanitary staff now at my disposal, sanitary wants which have long been
needed, are being supplied; my own time for the last six weeks has
been wholly devoted, I hope not fruitlessly, to the public service; and
I am happy to be able to add that during the entire time I have received
the hearty co-operation, whenever I needed it, of all the principal
Officers of the Vestry, as well as of my own staff.
EDWARD BALLARD, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Offices,
September 6 th, 1866.