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The occurrence of actual cases of smallpox in London during the year may be thus summarised.
In February five cases were reported and removed to hospital, two in Hackney, one in Bethnal
Green, and two in Stepney. Of the Hackney cases, the first to become known was a girl aged ten years,
the daughter of a man who occupied a boot and shoe factory. Inquiry showed that two sisters of this
girl and two fellow-workers (one living in Bethnal Green) had recently suffered from mild attacks of smallpox,
the nature of the disease not having been recognised. The first of these (the Bethnal Green resident)
contracted the disease in the preceding December during a visit to Devonport, and was the first case of
this group. The case removed to hospital from Bethnal Green was a child aged ten years, who had been
in contact with the Hackney cases. This child attended the Teesdale-road school, which is about seven
hundred yards distant from the Mowlem-street School, to be subsequently referred to. The two persons
attacked in Stepney were a brother and sister. The source of infection was unknown, although it was
thought likely that exposure to infection occurred during visits to Hackney, where cases had been previously
notified.
During March there were seven cases in London. Two of the cases (occurring in Stepney) were
associated with the two Stepney cases of the preceding month. One lived in the same tenement house
as those two people, and the other was a friend who visited them. The remaining five cases were all in
Hackney, and occurred in one family. On inquiry, it was found that the father and four sons (named
H)—three of whom were Mowlem-street scholars—were suffering from well-marked smallpox; the
children had never been vaccinated, and the father only in infancy. A still younger child, who had
been vaccinated recently, escaped. The source of infection could not at the time be ascertained, but
in May smallpox was found in the family next door, the children going to the Mowlem-street School.
During the month of April only one case of smallpox was notified, that of a sailor living in a
seamen's lodging house in Poplar; he had recently come in a vessel from New Zealand, calling at
Barcelona, Las Palmas and Cardiff. He went on shore at Barcelona, and also slept a night in Cardiff,
arriving in London the next day. No further case occurred in the lodging-house.
In May five cases were notified, one in Hackney and four in Bethnal Green. The case in Hackney
was that of an unvaccinated boy (W. B.), who lived next door to the H. family, and attended the Mowlemstreet
School. After this boy's removal to hospital, the mother stated that two other of her children
had had an eruption on their faces and arms some weeks before. Though the children were twice
vaccinated after the case notified had gone to hospital, the operation failed on each occasion, making
it probable that the eruption on these children had been that of smallpox. Examination of the H.
children in school led to the opinion that they may, on their return, have infected the boy just mentioned,
and there is some reason for thinking that they in their turn had been infected by the first two
cases of the B. family. Of the four cases from Bethnal Green, the first was that of a Mowlem-street
school-girl, who later infected her sister, a silkworker; and the second case was a Mowlem-street schoolboy
notified as suffering from chickenpox, but who was sent later to the smallpox hospital. He also
infected his sister, a leather-worker.
During the month of June there were eight cases, one in Paddington, one in Hackney, five in
Camberwell, and one in Bethnal Green. The case in Paddington was that of a woman who had recently
come from Plymouth, where the disease was prevalent. The Hackney case was that of a man who had
been working in Bunhill-row, and who in all probability had contracted the disease there from a Camberwell
boy, whose illness was not discovered until five other cases occurred in his home. The case in
Bethnal Green was that of a dressmaker, who, though living in close proximity to the houses from which
cases had been removed during May, could not be proved to be connected with those cases.