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38
SMALL-POX.
In Paris Small-pox was prevalent throughout 1900 and 1901.
In London in 1901, in January, a patient developed the disease on arriving
from Paris. In February a steward from an infected ship developed the disease
after arrival. In March and April no Small-pox was notified in London. In May
another traveller developed the disease. In the second week of June a child of
Russian Jews at the East End fell ill with the disease.
At the commencement of June a young gentleman arrived at a large hotel in
Central London from Paris. He is said to have developed influenza and then
Chicken-pox, and was moved into Marylebone to be nursed. The nurse who had
attended him sickened, and rapidly died of a malignant form of Small-pox.
At the beginning of June also a person suffered and died from an obscure
illness in Wandsworth. A visiting friend who returned to the provinces developed
Chicken-pox, a relative in the same house developed Small-pox, the dirty linen was
sent to a particular laundry, and at that laundry Small-pox developed in a female
sorter and a female fellow-worker.
Again, in June, in Hackney a male collector of dirty linen for a particular
laundry fell ill with Small-pox, a female fellow-worker, the daughter of the collector,
the stepson of the collector, a sister of the stepson, another sister, a young male
person living in the same house, and a brother of a young woman living next door
to three of the young women attacked.
At the beginning of July a servant went from Limehouse, in the neighbourhood
of the docks, to a house in Paddington, stayed there a few days, and went
away ill to Marylebone, where she was found suffering from Small-pox, and was
removed to hospital on the 9th July, having given the disease to the housekeeper
in Paddington, and to another woman who visited the house.
On the 16th July a girl, seventeen years of age, a sorter of dirty linen at a
laundry, receiving from hotels and boarding-houses in the W.C. District, fell ill at
work, came to her home in St. Pancras and developed measles and mild chickenpox
for which she was quietly nursed at home. About a fortnight afterwards,
her two sisters were sent from a general hospital to the ships suffering from
Small-pox. A child next door, that they were seen to fondle, developed
chicken-pox, was nursed at home, and at the end of a week died of Small-pox.
Six other members of this child's family living in other parts went to
hospital suffering from Small-pox, in addition to seven other persons in the same
house, and about twenty other persons in thesame street. At the same time in the
adjoining Borough of Marylebone a number of cases were occurring not apparently
infected from the same source.
The local outbreak was promptly got under control, and the number of cases
was sensibly diminished, but the number of points of infection and the number of
susceptible persons in London, continued week by week to furnish cases spread over
considerable areas.
The two following tables show the course of the disease in the Boroughs of
the Metropolis and in St. Pancras to the end of the year.