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milk from 34 retail purveyors in Islington has been analysed, not one
among these persons has been found who does not skim and water his milk
before selling it, and some to an extent which is hideous to contemplate.
Is it credible, in the face of all the facts recorded, that the individual who
distributed the poison of Typhoid Fever to his customers, was an exception
to the general rule.*
I have said that Typhoid Fever was not usually prevalent in the parish
during the year. This remark applies to the parish generally, but beside
the Holloway outbreak just referred to, there was another localized outbreak
in the school belonging to the Holborn Union on the rise of Highgate
Hill. Altogether 34 cases arose in the building, including one of the
nurses and a washerwoman, and of these cases four were fatal. The first
recognised case was observed on February 24th. The last cases were sent
to the hospital on April 10th. This outbreak was also due to the drinking
of water from a cistern contaminated by the emanations from drains and
cesspools with which the waste pipe was connected. On cutting the connection
and cleansing and disinfecting the cistern, no fresh case occurred,
allowing for the period of incubation of the disorder.
SANITAEY WORK OF THE YEAE.
Table III. exhibits the ordinary work performed by and under the
superintendence of the inspectors during the past year. In addition I must
say, that the Sanitary Committee gave their sanction to the use of
carbolic acid in watering certain of the streets in the lowest parts of the
parish; and that we again undertook to. have the road side and gutter
in the Essex Eoad cleansed and deodorized after the Saturday night
market—both proceedings boing limited to the hot weather in the summer.
As soon as it became apparent that an epidemic of small-pox had certainly
commenced, all my efforts were directed to its limitation, so far as
the machinery at my disposal permitted this to be effected. The most
valuable of all the means of checking the progress of the disease—namely,
vaccination of all who had not been vaccinated, and re-vaccination of those
who had only their primary vaccination to rely upon, was a matter out of
my province. All I could do in regard to it I did—that is to say, I gave
to our parishioners good advice which, as usual, some took and others
neglected; and I wrote to the Board of Guardians as the local vaccination
authority, urging them to the adoption of such measures as appeared to
be applicable to the occasion.
*Since this was written additional analyses have been made of the milk supplied by
33 cowkeepera in Islington. All but two skimmed and watered their milk before selling it.
The only two, yet found in the parish, out of 67 milk-sellere, who sold milk without
thus deteriorating it, were Mr. Stainton, of Raglan Terrace, Highbury; and Mr. King, of
11, Hemingford Eoad.