London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Woolwich 1901

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Woolwich]

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25
high as the rate in Plumstead. Four cases occurred in 1900,
and 6 in 1899. Dr. Moore, the late Medical Officer of Health
of Eltham, reported specially on the occurrence of Enteric in
1898 and 1899, when six cases had occurred in West Chislehurst
Park. He attributed the outbreak to the fact that the
sewer, which runs down the centre of the road, was unventilated,
whilst at the same time, some of the houses were
connected to the sewer by drains from the cellars, which did
not open over gullies outside the houses." " All the houses in
which the disease occurred were drained in this fashion."
48. In the first 6 months of the year there were 4 cases, one
in July, four in August, four in September and two in October;
thus 11 of the cases occurred in the three months from the
middle of October. Of these 11 cases, one was clearly imported
from Offham Green and one was secondary, leaving a series of
nine cases to be accounted for. The first of the series was a
milk carrier who worked for A, but none of the later cases had
milk from A, who mainly supplies Woolwich and Plumstead
parishes. Of the remaining eight cases six had their milk from
a dairy B, which supplied 210 houses in Eltham, and 27 out of
50 houses in the road in which five of the cases lived. But all
the cases which had their milk from B, and one which did not,
lived in the road mentioned or within 200 yards of it, whereas
the milk in question was widely distributed through the parish.
All the cases supplied by milk were in one round, but the man
who served this round had had no suspicious illness nor any
connection with a known case of Enteric or Diarrhoea. The
man, however, who served another round lived near and was a
friend of the first case of the series (the milk carrier for A).
This man was stated to be of unclean habits, and it is possible
he may have had some dealings with milk cans belonging to the
affected round, but the fact remains that no cases occurred on his
own round. He was, however, dismissed for his unclean habits
and there was a cessation of cases shortly after his dismissal.
The farm cows and farm servants from which the milk was
c