View report page

29
door a few inches and said she thought she had small-pox or erysipelas.
From that day she was seen no more alive, nor was anything so much as
heard of her by the other inhabitants of the house; but her dog began to
bark and howl on Wednesday, the 21st, and continued to do so until the
door of the room was broken open late at night on Friday, the 23rd,
when the wretched creature was found lying on her back in bed, naked,
exposed, and dead, probably having died three days previously. The
state of the room, from filth of every sort, and the evidences of entire
neglect and wretchedness, exceeds belief. A medical man was called in
and recognised small-pox as one of the diseases from which the deceased
had suffered. The coroner was communicated with, but not deeming an
inquest to be necessary, he directed his officer to report the case to me.
Several other cases subsequently occurred in this house; but the
dates prove that the infection was derived from the living woman,
and not, as was supposed, from the dead body.
A fatal case occurred under the care of an unregistered
practitioner :—
We were unable to persuade the patient, a married woman, to go to
the hospital, though her husband gave his consent. The family were
very poor, and it subsequently transpired that they subsisted during the
week the illness lasted upon money obtained by pledging infected things
with no fewer than three pawnbrokers, all in the adjoining parish of
Paddington !
A boy having died from small-pox, and there having been no
medical attendant, an inquest was held and a verdict of manslaughter
was returned against the woman in whose charge the
boy had been placed owing to the outbreak of the disease in his
father's dwelling. (The boy's brother also had the disease, was
sent to the hospital and recovered.) The grand jury ignored the
bill on the graver count, and no evidence being offered on the
minor count, charging the woman with a misdemeanour, she was
discharged. The proceedings, however, will not have been without
good effects.*
In the course of one month no fewer than seven cases of small
pox were reported in as many houses, the sufferers being domesticservants,
who, no doubt, had contracted the disease in the course
of Sunday visits to friends. No second case occurred in any of
the houses referred to, all the cases having been removed to the
hospitals and the infected rooms, clothing, bedding, &c., having
been properly disinfected. The fact is mentioned as an illustration
of a peculiar danger, and it shows the necessity for judicious
restriction of domestic visitations during the prevalence of epidemic
disease.
*The following case reported in the daily papers on March 2nd shows that the law
is strong enough to reach and to punish in such cases of neglect:—"At the Manchester
Assizes, Agnes Turner was charged with having caused the death
of her Bon Robert Turner, 18, by neglecting to procure proper medical aid for him.
It appeared that the lad was suffering from small pox, and his mother, fearing that
he would be removed to the Small Pox Hospital if it were known that he was
affected with the disease, kept the secret until the possibility of recovery was hopeless.
The prisoner was found guilty, and the judge sentenced her to two months'
imprisonment without hard labour."