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"fever at No. 4, Clifton Terrace, although perhaps the other houses
"near were cleaner than No. 4, where the cases of fever occurred,
"and that that was the only reason he could give that there were no
"cases in other houses ; that there were bad smells in the street and
"in the house, and that the people at No. 4 were not cleanly. He
"did not attend the first cases of fever, and the case to which he was
"first called was that of the barman, on January 19th, 1875, and
"who died on January 26th. He did not refer the fever in this
"instance to the field, but to direct infection from the closet when the
"lad visited the house to see his friends on January 1st.
Dr. Cotton, the medical officer of the district, also attended
your Committee and stated, "that he was called to the first case of
"enteric fever at No. 4, Clifton Terrace, on November 26th, 1874,
"and that had the girl been removed to the hospital as he wished, no
"other case, in his opinion, would have followed. She ultimately
"recovered. The mother, who nursed the girl, was the next attacked;
"he first attended her on December 18th, 1874, and she also refused
"to be removed, and died, for want of good nursing on January
"17th, 1875. There was no doubt she took the fever from her
"daughter. In consequence of attending these cases, he was in and
"out of the house during this time. The three subsequent cases,
"excluding altogether the barman, who was attended by Mr.
"Soutter, he had had sent to Homerton, and they were members of
"the same family to which he was first called. There were no other
"cases of fever to his knowledge in the neighbourhood. The people
"in Clifton Terrace were poor, and he had had charge of other cases
"of illness there; some had died, but none were fever cases.
"He did not think the condition of the field was the cause of the
"fever, but that the state of the house was sufficient in itself to
"breed the disease; that the people he attended were none too
"cleanly; that the rooms they occupied on the ground floor were dark
"and ill-ventilated, and altogether a bad place to have fever in, but
"he could not say that the fever was generated by the dirty state of
"the people."
"If the neighbourhood had been the cause of the fever other
"persons, he considered, would have taken it, but that he knew of no
"other case of fever except in that one house."