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courteous Medical Superintendent has acquainted me with many illustrations
of this fact; hut, as he intends to publish his experience
shortly, it would not be fair to detract from the interest of his work
by any partial and imperfect statement in this place.
I may mention, however, that the recurrence of the Easter festival
having brought its thousands of holiday-makers into the immediate
vicinity of the hospital, viz., at Lillie Bridge and Stamford Bridge
running grounds, the opportunity was deemed a good one for
endeavouring to ascertain what basis, if any, there might be for
suspicion against the hospital; aud, accordingly, I wrote a letter in
the following terms to the Lancet and the British Medical Journal,
and it was inserted conspicuously in both papers on the 26th April.
"The question whether the Small-Pox Hospital at Fulham may
not be a danger to the locality by direct infection, still agitating
the public mind, I have been requested by the Kensington Vestry
to ask you to permit me to draw the attention of the profession
to the fact that, on the 4th, 5th, 11th, 14th, and 15th days of
April, many thousands of people were congregated in the immediate
vicinity of the hospital, viz., at the Lillie Bridge or at
the Stamford Bridge running-grounds. The Vestry are of opinion
that, if there be any basis for the belief that the hospital is a source
of danger to the public by direct infection, the fact should become
manifest on such occasions as those referred to. They appeal,
therefore, to medical men in town and country, for detailed
information should cases of small-pox come under their notice,
which, due regard being had to the known period of incubation,
may be reasonably supposed to have originated from infection on
the dates and at the places named."
To this letter I did not receive one reply.
A fresh outbreak occurred at Brompton at the end of 1878, corresponding
with a general recrudescence of the disease throughout
the Metropolis, as shown by the cases admitted into the Hospitals;
the local prevalence of the disease, however, being explained by the
existence of numerous unguarded centres of infection at that very
time.
As will be seen by reference to the previous table, there had been
only one known case of the disease, and that in the north of the