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108
Smallpox.
During the month there have only been seven cases of
smallpox notified, the seven cases occurring in various
parts of the Borough, and on notification promptly removed.
The greatest danger to the Metropolis is, without doubt, the
wandering cases of the malady. For example, one poor
woman, who was in the habit of sleeping in open doorways,
disused basements, and common lodging houses, is known to
have wandered for three days and nights, between the
eastern portion of the Borough and the central districts, in a
most infectious state.
The following is a brief history of another case:—
C. E., aged 19, felt ill on the 16th October, but
continued his employment, which consisted in delivering
handbills from house to house. On the 17th he consulted a
medical man at a certain dispensary in this Borough; the
medical man apparently did not recognise the disease.
During the rest of the day he lay in his grandmother's
small back room in St. John's Wood. At 7 p.m. he went
for the night to the Salvation Army Shelter, where he
regularly slept. On the 18th he was probably delirious
some part of the time, and his exact movements are
uncertain, but he appears to have walked the streets in the
neighbourhood of Covent Garden all night until the early
morning. He then made his way to Regent's Park, and
. passed the whole day on one of the seats. On the evening
of the 19th he presented himself at the Salvation Army
Shelter, and was noticed to have an eruption on his face.
It had really appeared on the 17th, possibly even earlier;
this time he was not admitted, but sent to the Casual Ward,
seen by a medical man, and promptly removed to hospital.
A relative of the patient saw him at St. John's Wood
on the 17th, and was attacked a fortnight afterwards, and
has been removed to hospital from another district. In that
portion of the Metropolis in which the patient was delivering
handbills, it is also to be observed that there was an outburst
of smallpox around the 29th and 30th of the month,
which would agree with the incubation period of seed
dropped into people's letter boxes on the 16th. Hence, the
inference that some of these infections were derived from
C. E.