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30
THE INDICTMENT AGAINST FULHAM HOSPITAL.
In my last annual report I dwelt at length on "the indictment"
against the hospital, viz.—"The charge against the hospital of being
the cause of the prevalence of small-pox in the surrounding parishes,"
and I gave numerous histories showing how the disease had been
spread. I could have added largely to those histories on the present
occasion, but it is needless, the Local Government Board
having resolved to make an enquiry into the allegations against the
hospital, and having appointed Dr. Thome Thorne with Mr. W. H.
Power to conduct the enquiry.
Dr. Thorne made known his appointment and duties in a letter
to the medical practitioners in the Borough of Chelsea, which includes
the parishes of Kensington, Chelsea, Fulham, and Hammersmith,
in the following terms:—
19th January, 1881.
"Under the instructions of the Local Government Board, I am engaged
in an enquiry relating to the use and influence of Hospitals for Infectious
Diseases ; and in connexion with this investigation I am desirous of ascertaining
whether such hospitals are, and if so, by what means, instrumental
in causing the spread of infection in the localities in which they are situated.
At the present moment I am engaged with my colleague, Mr. W. H. Power,
in procuring information on this point as regards the Metropolitan Asylum
District Hospital at Fulham, where cases of small-pox are under treatment,
and I shall feel much indebted to you if you will kindly give me the names
and addresses of any persons whom you may have met with suffering from
small-pox within a radius of one mile of the hospital since Christmas Day
last, and also if you will, during the next three months, give me similar information
as regards any such cases which may come under your notice
quite irrespective of any presumed source of contagion."
I obtained the insertion of Dr. Thome's letter in the local newspapers,
and I did everything in my power, personally and through
the Sanitary Staff, to assist the gentlemen to whom the enquiry had
been deputed. The desirability of the enquiry cannot be questioned
and the enquiry can hardly fail to be productive of valuable
results, provided only there has been no concealment of cases.
It is to be regretted that, through an oversight, information was
not asked respecting cases of "Chicken-Pox," for we have evidence
that in numerous instances a severe case of small-pox followed
what was supposed to be a case of chicken-pox, but what really
was a mild case of modified small-pox. In connexion with such an