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13
Mint Square, but found that she and her husband were hop-picking in Kent.
They had left their address at 134, Royal Mint Square, where Gaffney called,
and remained for 10 minutes. I was unable to trace his movements from
the time of his leaving Royal Mint Square until midnight, when he called on
some of his friends at 3, Pell Place, Pell Street, St. George's. He was admitted
into the house, and allowed to sleep in a bed-chair in the kitchen. He was then
ill, but he does not seem to have had a rash at this time. Early the following
morning he left, and visited his sister at Pembles Farm, Capel, near Tonbridge.
He slept that night in a barn with his sister, brother-in-law, an old lady and her
daughter. Gaffney was very ill during the night, and the following day
(Thursday, September 30th) the five returned to London, occupying the same
compartment in the train. No one else entered this compartment during the
journey. Having arrived at London Bridge, he was taken in a cab to 135, Royal
Mint Square. The railway carriage and cab were not disinfected as it was
hopeless to try and identify them, when I found out these facts.
A medical man was called in to see Gaffney on Thursday evening, and the
doctor also visited him on the four following days as well. It is true there was
a suspicion in the mind of the doctor that the disease might possibly be small
pox, but the patient was very persistent in stating that it was "Java" fever,
which he had suffered from, on several occasions, and which he had contracted on
the West Coast of Africa. The patient was very positive that it was a relapse
of the attack that he had at Algiers, and that the rash which had now developed
was exactly the same.
I was not asked by the doctor in attendance to see the patient until the
following Monday morning (October 4th). The patient repeated the same tale
to me, but I was positive that he was suffering from confluent small pox. He
was removed to Joyce Green Hospital within an hour. I had his sister and
brother-in-law at once removed to the Council's Shelter, and the premises at
Royal Mint Square were disinfected. The two women who slept in the same
barn contracted small pox many years ago. Gaffney himself was vaccinated in
infancy and again when he was thirteen years of age. I communicated with
the Medical Officer of Health of the district where the hop farm was situated,
and obtained the addresses of those who slept in the immediate vicinity of the
patient, and who were likely to have come in contact with him. I forwarded
those addresses which were not situated in this Borough to the respective Medical
Officers of Health. With regard to those situated in this district, I kept the
occupiers under observation as well as those living in Pell Place. Gaffney died
on October 9th.