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42
In 1903 Small.pox started in St. Pancras in the following manner:—On the
4th June a notification was received that a female, aged 41 years, was
suffering from Small.pox at 4, P— P— ; the case had been removed the day
previously, the rash had appeared three days previously, and the patient
fallen ill two days previously to the rash. No further case was notified for a
month.
On the 4th July a notification was received that a female aged 32 years,
suffering from Small.pox at 148, C— S—, had been removed to hospital the
day previously, and that the rash had appeared and she had fallen ill the day
before that.
In the following week, on the 7th July, a notification was received that a
female aged 35, was suffering from Small.pox at 1, B— S—. The case was
removed the same day, the rash appeared also the same day, and the patient
had been ill for three days previously. These two last cases were in houses
that almost abutted upon the house where the first case occurred, and it
would look as if there was an undiscovered case spreading the disease. After
enquiry this case was found at 4, P— P—; a female aged 9 years, who had
been ill since the 7th June, and upon whom the rash appeared on the 11th,
and was regarded as Chicken.pox. The same was forthwith notified and
removed to hospital.
On the 11th July a further notification was received that, at an adjoining
street, a male aged 46, at 7, B— S—, was suffering from Small.pox. The
case was removed on the previous day, had the rash the day before, and had
been ill two days before that.
Smallpox and Laundry Workers.—There have been numerous instances
recorded of laundry hands catching Small.pox. Three very typical outbreaks
commenced in laundries in Wandsworth, Hackney, and St. Pancras in 1901,
at the commencement of the epidemic in that year, and others have been
recorded elsewhere. A further instance must be placed on record. On
Saturday, 17th October, 1903, a man aged 30, fell ill at a "house in Rochester
Road. On the 25th October the illness was recognised as Small.pox, and he
was removed to hospital. The dirty linen from this house was sent to a
receiving office in Camden Road. On the 11th November a girl, aged 17
years, working at this receiving office, developed a Small.pox eruption at her
home.in Islington, and was sent to hospital. The dirty linen received at the
Camden Road office was sent to be washed at the laundry at Ilighgate Hill, and
on the 13th November a girl aged 15 years, who worked at this laundry, was
also sent to hospital suffering from Small.pox, from her home in another part
of Islington.
TYP1TOTD FEVER.