London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1904

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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The following table shows the number of cases of smallpox notified in London in each week of the year 1904-

Smallpox-Notified cases,1904.

Week ended.No. of cases notified.Week ended.No. of cases notified.Week ended.No. of cases notified.
January96May1423September103
,,163,,2116,,171
,,235,,2834,,24-
,,303June49October1-
Februan67,,1120,,81
,,131ti188,,15-
ft208,,2514ti22-
ti273July29,,29-
March57,,99November5-
,,1224,,169,,12-
,,1922,,236,,191
,,2653,,308,,263
April237Aug.61December32
,,925,,13-,,101
,,1637,,201,,173
,,2326,,271,,248
,,3012Sept.31,,314
May714

Cases of smallpox had occurred in London in every week of the year 1903, 22 cases being notified
in the five weeks ending the 2nd January.
During the four weeks ending the 30th January, 1904, fourteen cases occurred. Three of these
cases were persons residing in Westminster and were the last of a series of cases which had begun in
the preceding year, due originally to infection from a bargeman who had been at a wharf adjoining
Millbank. One case occurred in each of the following districts, Islington, Hackney, Bethnal Green
and Stepney, and two in Lambeth and four in Southwark. The Lambeth cases were members of the
family of a woman who had been attacked in the preceding month of December, and three of the
Southwark cases were also known to have been in contact with cases of smallpox during that month.
In February, seventeen cases occurred in nine districts, one of which deserves especial reference.
This was the case of a cattleman F, who had arrived on the lGth February in Victoria Docks on board
the ss. Austriana from Newport News, Virginia, U.S.A. Two days after his arrival he was found to be
suffering from smallpox and removed to hospital. In the meantime, he had been staying at 144,
High-street, Poplar, with two of his fellow cattlemen, of whom there had been eleven on board the vessel.
These were searched for in all the seamen's and common lodging houses by the Council's inspectors,
and all but one, who had returned to America, were found and vaccinated. Five days after the removal
of F., one of his companions, C.P., a cattleman who had been staying at a common lodging house in
Leman-street, Whitechapel, was found to be suffering from smallpox and removed to hospital. Between
the 16th and 18th February, F. had visited the dispensary at the Victoria Seamen's Rest and on the
4th of March, a lodger and three servants of that institution were removed to hospital with smallpox.
Another companion of F-, a man named K., had stayed one night at a common lodging-house in Thrawlstreet,
Whitechapel, and a case of smallpox was subsequently removed from this house on the 6th
March. This man had been an out-patient at the London Hospital. On the 8th March, a man living in
Lower North-street, Poplar, was removed to hospital with smallpox. He had been in the habit of
attending meetings at the Victoria Seamen's Rest. The same day four cases were removed from the
common lodging house in Thrawl-street, having evidently been infected by C.P. and these were followed
by two more on the 9th and 10th March. One of the latter had been drinking in a public house in
Leman-street.
In view of the probable extension of the disease in common lodging houses
arrangements were made by which "contacts" should sleep in separate rooms and
destitute "contacts" should be provided with board and lodging at the Council's expense so as to ensure
that they should remain under observation, and Mr. Bingham, formerly medical superintendent of the
Smallpox Hospital at Hampstead, was engaged by the Council to visit infected common and seamen's
lodging houses in the early morning with the Council's officers, before the lodgers had left the houses.
As a result several cases of smallpox were detected in an early stage of the disease, and the sufferers
were removed to hospital without loss of time. Two cases thus dealt with were removed from the Victoria
Seamen's Rest on the 18th March. On the 22nd March two more cases were removed from the common
lodging house in Leman-street and another man, who had been a lodger in a common lodging house
in Brick-lane, was removed from the Whitechapel Infirmary. Two further cases were removed from this
common lodging house on the 23rd March, and two more on the 24th and 25th respectively. On the
23rd March, a foreign seaman who had been previously staying in High-street, Shad well, was removed
from the Victoria Seamen's Rest and the same day a case of smallpox was removed from the Victoria
Home in Commercial-street. This case was shortly followed by three others from the same home. On
the 25th March, a seaman who had been staying at Medland Hall was removed and on the 27th March
a man who had been staying at the common lodging house in Thrawl-street, already mentioned. This