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10
At the time of its occurrence I reported upon this outbreak to your
Sanitary Committee to the following effect:—
To the Sanitary Committee.
Gentlemen,
I beg to report in reference to the recent outbreak of Typhoid
Fever, which occurred with exceptional severity in St. Pancras, that between
the middle of August and the middle of October, 86 cases were recorded as
having occurred in various parts of this Parish, Typhoid Fever usually
recurring about that time with more or less intensity.
Of these 86 cases, 25 were fatal.
Seeing, however, that the fatal cases are always heard of at the time of
registration, if not previously, whilst the largest number of the cases of illness
(and this is especially true of Typhoid Fever) is never heard of at all, it must
not be supposed that any direct relationship exists between this mortality and
the sickness recorded.
This fact will become clearly apparent, when we separate the cases into
groups.
Forty-one of the 86 cases occurred in 27 dwellings, situated within a
comparatively small area in the immediate vicinity of Saint Pancras, and in
the neighbourhood of the Cattle Market.
Of the remaining forty-five cases scattered over the Parish, 2 were
imported directly from Saint Pancras, 2 occurred in persons who worked there,
whilst in two others the illness was contracted by persons whose work was near
the Cattle Market. 18 of these 45 cases were fatal, and some of them only
became known to us after death.
Of the 41 cases, 40 occurred in families supplied with milk by a Mr. X.,
a dairyman, of Saint Pancras, where two of these patients were working, one
known case only (which was fatal) having occurred in the Camden-road, in a
house deriving its milk supply from another source.
Of the 40 cases, 15 occurred in seven houses in the Camden-road, 2 in
two honses in Goodinge-road, 1 in Hilldrop Crescent, 1 in Hungerford-road,
and 21 in 15 tenements of the Queen's Arms Buildings, one of two blocks of
lodging-houses situated in the Cattle Market Area, and belonging to the
Corporation of the City.
Of the 41 localised cases 7 were fatal, 2 of which were amongst the 21
cases in the Queen's Arms group, where the whole of the cases of sickness could
be readily ascertained.