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82
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
"The particulars of the case are as follows:—On the19th
September, a case of Enteric Fever was notified to me
in the person of R. B., aged10 years, residing in Burtop
Road, the first symptoms having occurred about the 7th
September. At the time careful inquiries were made, but the
source of infection could not be ascertained. After his return
from hospital on the 8th November it was ascertained that
this boy had had winkles, bought from a street vendor, on the
21 st August, and also about the same time had eaten what he
called watercress which he had taken from the River Wandle,,
near McMurray's Mills.
"No further cases were notified until the 27th October,,
when I received a certificate to the effect that J. J., aged four
years, residing in Burtop Road, opposite the first case, was
suffering from the disease, the first symptoms having
occurred about the 16th October. It was not at first suspected
that there had been any connection between this case
and the first one. On the 3rd November, however, three cases,
sisters of J. J., aged respectively six, eight, and nine years,
were notified, the first symptoms occurring in each of those
three about the 23rd September, and I then visited Burtop
Road and ascertained that the only other child in the house,
S. J., aged one-and-three-quarters years, had had a suspicious
illness attended by sickness of diarrhoea, about the 1st
October, and also that this infant had been sent to another
house in Burtop Road to a nurse who was attending R. B.,
the first case, previous to his removal to hospital, and before
the nature of the illness was suspected. At the same time I
was informed that a girl, F. C., aged 22 years, who had been
nursing the second case, J. J., was ill and feverish, and with
the consent of the medical attendant I visited and found her
to be suffering from a typical attack of Enteric Fever.
"My attention was then directed to the boy of one-andthree-quarters
years, and as I suspected that he had teen
infected by R. B., and thus in turn infected the five other
cases, and also as I had been informed that the nurse had
taken the child to the house in Burtop Road where the first
case occurred, I had a specimen of his blood taken for
examination. The result of this examination was positive, a
VVidal re-action having been obtained. To make the