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54
To the Sanitary Committee.
gentlemen,
The severe epidemic of Small-Pox through which we have
been passing (and we trust have now, in the main, passed) in
Islington since the month of September, 1876, has reached a point
in its decline when, in my opinion, I may fitly place before you a
short Report upon the subject, together with such tabulated
information as may be calculated to prove of use in its relation to
the remarks I have to make. The outbreak became apparent in
our midst from the period of the registration of a death which
occurred in Pembroke Street during the week ending the 9th of
September, 1876. The disease instantly broke out with great
severity in the Thornhill Ward, and "especially amongst the
poorer population of the Bemerton District." It was in this Ward
that it first prevailed extensively, following in this respect the
course of former epidemics.
The shock was so intense, that out of 193 cases occurring
in the whole parish, no less than 163 cases were recorded in this
Ward alone during the first seven weeks of the epidemic, the 30
other cases being about equally distributed, with the exception of
Highbury and Canonbury, amongst the remaining Wards. The
disease subsequently, although somewhat abating but not leaving
the Thornhill District, became more extended and attacked with
considerable though with diminished intensity, parts of Lower
Holloway, Upper Holloway, and Highbury; the cases in the latter
Ward occurring chiefly as usual, in the Queensland Road District.