View report page

19
several cases in another house, of whom one died in hospital, and the
others were well isolated at home. The remaining cases, few in number,
were single cases. It seemed as if the disease had no particular
tendency to spread in the district, which, earlier in the epidemic, when
Brompton was free, had been severely stricken, and where re-vaccmation
had been practised to a relatively large extent.
I shall conclude my remarks on this subject with a brief resume of
some of the work, &c., of Fulham Hospital during 1878, as set out in
Dr. Makuna's annual report. On the first day of the year there were
15 convalescent patients remaining under treatment, transferred
from the Stockwell Hospital. On the 6th January, a sick man walked
in from Fulham, and on the 25th the hospital was re-opened for acute
cases. By the 21st February the number of patients had reached 156,
and on April 21st there were 252 cases, the maximum number since
the opening of the hospital in March, 1877. By the end of May—the
admissions had become fewer week by week—the number had declined
to 187; on July 21st there were 72 cases, and on the 28th September
only 3. Between the 28th September and the 31st December the
number rose slowly to 20. Here we see the first flow of the wave,
the full force of which has hardly been expended yet, though from
time to time it has seemed about to ebb. And it corresponds with
that new outbreak in the Brompton district, of which it was the
evidence and the outward sign; and not, as some imagine, the
cause. The number of patients in the hospital is seen to rise and fall
just as the cases out of doors increase or diminish. If the timid and
the ignorant (using the term in no unbecoming sense) will invert the
order of occurence of the events we can but regret it, and endeavour
with how little soever of success to set them right.
There were 1,109 admissions in all during the year, of which
766 were acute cases, and 343 were convalescents transferred from
Hampstead and Stockwell. There were 134 deaths; 20 cases remained
under treatment at the end of the year, and 970 persons had
been discharged. There were 121 deaths out of 727 completed cases,
equal to 16.64 per cent. Of 569 vaccinated persons 48 died, or 8*43
per cent. Of 158 unvaccinated persons 73 died or 46.20 per cent.
Fifty-five children under five years were admitted, 21 had been
vaccinated and 34 had not. Only one of the vaccinated children