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14
There were two very severe local outbreaks in the north-western
part of the parish. The first occurred in Testerton-street, near
the Latymer-road Railway Station. The first case was that of a
man who was opposed to vaccination. The home accommodation
and the circumstances of the family were miserably insufficient,
but nothing was heard of his illness till it had ended fatally.
This man had three children, the youngest of whom sickened
and died, having had no medical attendance. While this child
was lying dead I visited the house, and found the remaining
two children ill. They were removed to the Hospital at once,
where they both recovered, although unvaccinated. In this street
and close at hand other twelve cases at least occurred, and a
careful investigation made at the time, left no doubt that the
infection extended from the first group of sick. This outbreak
occurred in July. In September another localised outbreak
occurred in and about the Walmer-road, and there was this
special feature of interest connected with it, that it commenced in
a mews contiguous to the premises where the process of disinfection
had been carried on during the entire course of the epidemic,
and the question naturally arose whether the disease was due in
the first case to this proximity ? I say in the first case—there were
six in all in the family first attacked—because when once the disease
had entered the close and filthy abode in which they lived, all the
other cases followed as a matter of course. To solve this question I
made a careful enquiry, and arrived at the conclusion that there was
no ground for the suspicion, for it turned out that during the
period of incubation of the first case the disinfecting chamber
was not in use. I dwelt upon this group of cases in my
October report, for I felt it was important to find out whether the
disinfecting chamber was likely to be of danger to the inhabitants
of the locality in which it is situated. There had been few cases
of small-pox in the neighbourhood during the preceding twelve
months, although it had been raging elsewhere, and although every
infected article of clothing and bedding in hundreds of cases had
been purified at the chamber. Only 11 cases (in 10 houses) had
occurred within a radius of 200 yards; and but one in the isolated
block of closely packed, thickly populated houses, which surrounds
the chamber. Moreover, none of the persons engaged in and about
the disinfecting process had suffered from small-pox, although, as it
turned out, they had not been revaccinated. The conclusion at
which I arrived was that if due care were taken—the infected
articles being quickly exposed to a high temperature and chemical
fumigation, the process might be carried on without appreciable risk
to those engaged in it or to the surrounding inhabitants.
The correctness of this conclusion having been disputed by a
local practitioner, I, at his request, reviewed the whole subject in
the light thrown upon it by a large number of cases in the