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23
September but 17 fresh cases were heard of, while during the
last three months of the year the number of cases reported
was 23, 28, and 26 respectively.
Of the 547 cases reported to the Sanitary Department
during the year, 376 were removed to hospital. That the
removal of these cases from their own homes was the means
of limiting the further extension of the epidemic there cannot
be the least doubt.
As evidence of what might have happened in many houses
if the infectious sick had not been early removed, may be
cited the case of a house in Whitfield Street, in which a
person suffering from small pox was compelled to remain
during the short period when there was no hospital accommodation
for our parishioners ; in this house eight other persons
were subsequently attacked, one of whom died.
There were 84 deaths from small pox during 1881, 58 of
those who died were removed to hospital before their death,
leaving 26, who died in their own homes.
The 84 deaths were 16.7 per 1000 of the total deaths in St.
Pancras. In the whole of London the deaths from this
disease were 29.2 per 1000 of the total deaths, or 12.5 above
those in our parish.
St. Pancras has not suffered in proportion to population as
heavily as the Metropolis ; thus, in London, as a whole, there
were 618 deaths per million of population, in the northern
districts 536 deaths per million, and in St. Pancras 355 deaths
per million.
When we recollect the thickly populated districts which are
situated in St. Pancras, where there is so much opportunity
for infectious diseases to spread, we can have very little doubt
that much of the immunity enjoyed by the parish during the
epidemic of 1881 is due to the action of the Vestry, in providing
ample accommodation for the isolation of persons
suffering from this disease.
And St. Pancras suffered at the same rate as the rest of
the Metropolis, instead of having to chronicle 84 deaths from
small pox, we should have lost 145 parishioners, nor would
the loss of life have been the only misfortune which would
have resulted, for each death we may assume fully five persons
would have passed through a loathsome disease, would have
been deprived of the opportunity of continuing their occupations,
and some, besides bringing their families into poverty,
would have perhaps been permanently disabled by the loss of
eyesight, which is one of the accompaniments of this terrible
disease.