View report page

16
him for over a fortnight, but as the disease had not been diagnosed correctly,
the boy had been allowed to go out and mix with other children. I removed
the patient immediately to the Fever Hospital. I have no doubt that he
has been the means of spreading the disease to other children in the immediate
neighbourhood.
Another case was responsible for the spread of the disease in another
part of the Borough, three weeks afterwards. A girl, aged 17, went to a
Doctor, who notified the case as Scarlet Fever. Unfortunately the
patient and her mother gave a wrong address. Later on, I found her, but
she had then returned to work, though her hands were in a peeling condition.
She was employed by a large potted meat firm. She declared that the peeling
of her hands was due to the conditions she worked under. Her duties
consisted in chopping up boiled meat, previous to its being tinned, and in
washing up afterwards. She said her hands had been peeling for two years,
and that the hands of the other girls were in a similar state. I immediately
visited the premises where she was employed and examined those that worked
with her in the room. There was no sign of any peeling, and the other girls
informed me that they did not notice there was anything the matter with the
patient's hands until the day she returned to work after her illness. These
statements, which I afterwards found to be untrue, appear as if the wrong
address was deliberately given to the Doctor with the intention of wilfully
misleading us, so that she should not be prevented from following her employment.
Whooping Cough.
The number of deaths was 123, or 8 less than in the previous year. This
corresponds to a death-rate of .40 per 1,000.
52 occurred in the Limehouse District, or at the rate of .89 per 1,000
of the population.
29 occurred in the St. George's District, or at the rate of .56 per 1,000
of the population.
34 occurred in the Mile End District, or at the rate of .29 per 1,000
of the population.
8 occurred in the Whitechapel District, or at the rate of 09 per
1,000 of the population.
The death-rate throughout London was .32 per 1,000.