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the epidemic pressure. After the removal of all who are willing to be
removed, foci enough of contagion yet remain to keep up the disease
among our crowded population. Notwithstanding the number of
persons vaccinated Weekly also, there are thousands remaining who are
unprotected by neglect of primary or secondary vaccination, and who
will furnish victims for this hideous malady for some time to come.
The numbers of fresh cases I have reported refer only to those among
the poorest classes. The 45 deaths (at the current death-rate from smallpox,
about 17 per cent, of those attacked,) represent not 123 but 264
cases, so that we may calculate that the cases which come under my
cognizance are less than the half of what actually occur in all classes of
our community.
The plan we are now adopting to get disinfections performed in
infected houses, under the directions of the Sanitary Committee, is
working tolerably. We serve the owners of premises with 48 or
24 hours' notice to disinfect premises, and supply disinfectants for use
where articles of clothing are worth preservation, and there are facilities
for washing and boiling. Where the owners have not commenced at the
expiry of the notice, we employ workmen to perform the disinfections,
charging the expense on the owners. Our Inspectors look after the
work as well as their time will permit. In many instances we have
destroyed by burning, bedding and clothing which could not be
conveniently disinfected, or which were so old and filthy as not to be
worth the trouble of preservation. From the commencement of
December to the present date I have a record of 318 houses which have
become infected. Under the plan adopted 172 have, with their contents,
been more or less satisfactorily disinfected, leaving 146 yet to be
dealt with. The continuance of one or more cases of small-pox in
some of the latter prevents our dealing with them at present. Nearly
the whole of the time of our Inspectors is taken up with the control of
the epidemic; their ordinary systematic work, (such as the regular
inspection of slaughter-houses, cow-sheds, and bake-houses, together
with the systematic inspection of the dwellings of the poor,) has had to
stand over.
On January 18th the Guardians opened the Old Workhouse in the
Liverpool Road, as an extempore Hospital for small pox. Between this
date and February 25th, 96 patients were admitted, of whim 15 died.
The death rate there was 15.6 per cent. On the night of February 25th
there were 50 patients in this Hospital, including convalescents, and on
the night of March 4th, 82.