View report page

London County Council.
SMALLPOX IN LONDON COMMON LODGING-HOUSES,
1901-1902.
Presented to the Public Health Committee, 17th December, 1903.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.
Dr. Hamer's Report.
History of the outbreak.
The smallpox epidemic of 1901-1902 was not in its first developments associated with
spread of disease among common lodging-house inmates. Six cases of smallpox had been recognised
in London during the first half of 1901, but none of these affected occupants of common
lodging-houses; in two instances infection was traced to persons coming from Paris. Early in
June the first indications of increasing prevalence were manifested; two groups (comprising six
cases in all) were notified from Hackney, in which a laundry played a part in disseminating
infection; furthermore, an unrecognised case of the disease contracted in Paris caused some
mischief in Wandsworth and elsewhere, a laundry again being concerned in the diffusion of the
malady. In the week ending August 10th smallpox began to show ability to spread in St. Pancras,
and for some weeks the epidemic smouldered mainly among foreigners living in that portion of
the borough lying to the west of Tottenham court-road, and in a neighbouring area in St. Marylebone
; dissemination of the disease was no doubt facilitated in several instances by concealment of
cases or by failure to recognise the fact that smallpox was in question. In the last few days of
September cases were detected in Finsbury, and were traced to returned hop-pickers (see annual
report for 1901 of the medical officer of health of Finsbury), and special anxiety was now felt as
to common lodging-house inmates, having regard to the fact that numbers of hop-pickers were
returning to London, and in many instances were resorting to common lodging-houses. On
August 23rd a case had been removed from a Salvation Army shelter in Bethnal-green, and on
September 8th a second patient was removed from this shelter ; daily inspection was made of these
premises by the Council's officers, but no further case occurred there. On August 24th a case
was removed from the Burne-street shelter. On September 19th a man was attacked, who stated
he had slept in casual wards and various common lodging-houses; on September 22nd a man
was removed from Shoe-lane casual ward, and on October 3rd a man who had slept in various
shelters, etc., was removed to the ships.
In the middle of October there was unmistakable evidence of serious risk of involvement of
the common lodging-house population. Reference may first be made to the case of a man who
had frequently slept, at the Burne-street shelter, and who was removed on 19th October from the
Marylebone casual ward. Mr. Wynter Blyth reported that this man had walked the streets in the
neighbourhood of Covent Garden on the night of the 18th till the early morning, when he was
probably delirious, and had then made his way to Regent's Park, where he passed the day on one
of the seats. This was the second case associated with Burne-street; accordingly, close watch was
kept on these premises, and on the night of November 1st the 369 men who occupied bunks at the
shelter were inspected by the Council s medical officers, but no case of commencing smallpox was
detected. Again, it is interesting to note, in view of subsequent behaviour of smallpox in Stepney,
that on the 22nd October a woman was removed suffering from smallpox from a shelter in that
district. She had walked to London from Perry-wood, in Kent, where she had been "hopping";
her husband, who had accompanied her to London, had not stopped in Stepney, but had proceeded
to Barnet.
The first considerable outbreak affecting occupants of common lodging-houses, however,
occurred in Holborn. E. W., a woman who developed the eruption of smallpox on October 13th,
was engaged selling walnuts in Covent-garden until the 15th, when she was taken to the Endellstreet
Infirmary and there notified, but while the arrival of the ambulance was being awaited she
escaped. Immediately on its being known that she was at large the Council's inspectors were
instructed to search for her. One of her friends, a blind woman, suggested that she should be
looked for, after " closing time," in a particular basement at Upper Rathbone-place. This
information was communicated to Mr. Wynter Blyth, who caused a watch to be kept on these
premises. Careful observation was maintained on occupants of the Holborn common lodginghouses
by the Council's inspectors, and some of the premises in question were visited in the early
[14]