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33
It will be observed that the number of deaths from these
diseases has been unusually low during the year under
report. In fact the greatly diminished death-rate is
largely due to this circumstance.
Small-pox caused but one death in the sub-district,
that of an un vaccinated girl of 15 years of age. The
girl took the disease from her mother and no medical
attendance was provided for either and the outbreak of
disease concealed from the sanitary authorities, until an
attempt to register the girl's death without a medical
certificate informed them of its existance. The father,
the legally responsible person, contracted the disease and
was removed to the Small-pox Hospital where he also
died. About the same time two unvacciuated children
of another family were brought from an infected house
in Lambeth. These children were removed to the Smallpox
Hospital, where they both died. There was a
third child in this family which had been vaccinated
and which was sleeping with the others, but was not
attacked by the disease. A more convincing proof of
the efficacy of vaccination could not be adduced. In
the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board 15
deaths of inhabitants of the sub-district occurred. There
was a severe outbreak of this disease during several
months of the year, amongst the parish poor 103 cases
were recorded. Isolation by immediate removal of those
attacked, re-vacoination of the inmates of the house, and
disinfection of the rooms, clothing and bedding, and in
many instances the destruction of the latter, effectually
suppressed the epidemic.
Measles.—This disease has also been widely prevalent
during the year, and although fatal in but relatively few
cases as compared with the number attacked, and then
by intercurrent maladies such as Bronchitis or Pneumonia,
which are frequently the result of exposare or careless