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The usual enquiries were made as to the circumstances attending the occurrence of
the cases of enteric fever in the Borough. The subjoined may be mentioned as indicating
the danger of the disease spreading in a household by personal infection:
(1) Frank M , aged 15, working at a saw mill in the Cambridge Heath Road,
and residing at No. 16, W— Gardens, was first observed to be ill about January 14th.
He kept at his work, however, until January 28th when he was sent home on account
of illness. The case was certified to have been one of enteric fever on February 3rd
and the patient was removed to hospital.
(2) Elizabeth M—, aged 12, attending school, sister of above, was first observed
to be ailing about January 28th. She was certified to have enteric fever also' on Feb.
3rd and same date removed to hospital.
Case 1 was probably ailing for several days prior to January 14th. The mother
stated that the lad was heavy and complained of headache in the morning especially.
No. 16, W Gardens is a tenement house, each tenement consisting of three
rooms with separate watercloset and a tap direct from the main: for water for domestic
purposes. The general condition of the tenement in which the cases occurred was
good. The drains are all outside and have recently been reconstructed. The inhabitants
of the tenement were the parents and two other children besides the patients.
The following case is interesting: Sarah P, aged 23, a nurse at the Shoreditch
Infirmary, was certified to have enteric fever on March 17th. She was employed at
the Sittingbourne Isolation Hospital until February 19th when she left to take up her
duties at the Shoreditch Infirmary. At the time she left Sittingbourne she was engaged
nursing a severe case of typhoid fever. She appears to have been taken ill sometime
during the first week of March. It is highly probable that this nurse contracted
infection from the patient at Sittingbourne. It is not an uncommon thing for nurses to
become infected whilst nursing typhoid patients. It is perhaps hardly necessary to
remark that the risk of contracting the disease must be markedly greater in the cases of
unskilled persons who attend to patients suffering from typhoid fever.
The following cases occurred at No. 10, H Place, a house occupied by one
family in a fair sanitary condition:
'(1) Mrs. Annie C, aged 27, and Edwin C, aged 5, her son, were admitted
to the Metropolitan Hospital on October 18th suffering from typhoid fever. Mrs.
C appears to have been ailing from about the first of October, or possibly a day or
two before. She was not seen by a medical mam until October 15th. Edwin C
seems to have been taken ill somewhat suddenly about October 9th. There is an ind&finite
history of a previous illness, lasting for about a fortnight during the end of August and
the beginning of September somewhat suggestive of the possibility of a mild attack of
typhoid fever in the case of the boy. Widals reaction, however, was negative on
October 19th, though a positive result was obtained on October 21st. In the case of
Mrs. C the result was positive on October 19th. The connection between these