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My remarks upon this were as follows:—
It will be observed that during the middle four weeks ending 24th November
there was a great rise in the number of Enteric Fever cases, and the cases for
those four weeks have been plotted upon a map, and upon the same map the
cases occurring in Hampstead within a mile of the boundaries of Saint Pancras
have also been plotted. From a centre formed at the spot where Queen's
Crescent is crossed by the Maiden Road in Kentish Town three circles have
been drawn at an increasing distance of a quarter-of-a-mile diameter. Within
the three-quarters of a mile 57 cases occurred. Four of these cases were in
the outer ¼-mile zone (1 being in Hampstead), 15 of the cases were in the
middle ¼-mile zone (7 being in Hampstead), and 38 of the cases were within
the ¼-mile centre (all in St. Pancras), and 41 ¼ per cent., that is, about halfway
between one-third and one-half of the total cases in St. Pancras occurred
between this ¼-mile circle. As a matter of fact, the proportion is even greater,
because 7 cases that occurred in one house in the south-western corner of the
Borough have been credited to St. Pancras temporarily, although the house,
by the new boundary, was placed in Marylebone on the 9th November last.
This group of cases occurred in two families, living in two rooms, the children
playing together, one of the children suffering from the disease in a mild
form for ten days before being admitted to hospital, and in the meanwhile
spreading the disease by personal infection to the other children, who fell
ill later on.
Attention was first directed to Mussels as the probable cause of prevalence
on account of the evidence that two children suffering from Enteric Fever
were known, a little over a fortnight before falling ill, to have been reprimanded
for having picked up and eaten mussels falling from the stall board of