View report page

18
of it was usually the result of keeping the sufferers at home in
circumstances which precluded the possibility of isolation. In one
house in Dartmoor Street a concealed and fatal case gave rise to other
five cases in the same and an adjoining house, but these having been
removed to hospital the outbreak ceased. Seven cases occurred
in two families at a house in Clareville Grove, viz.,wife and two
children of a butler, and wife and three children of a journeyman
butcher, respectively resulting in the death of a child in each
family: the outbreak was revealed by a death that occurred on the
12th of August. The story is an instructive one and may be
profitably repeated here, as follows.—
T. H., a groom, aged 19 years, being very ill on July 25th walked
to a "provident dispensary" in College Street, Chelsea, where he
saw a doctor who told him to go home at once and go to bed.
The coachman with whom he had lodged at Manson Mews would
not take him in but told him to go to hospital; he then walked
to a house in Clareville Grove, where he had been a lodger three
weeks previously, and begged the landlady to allow him to go to
bed as he felt so very ill. The woman, out of kindness, allowed
him to do this, but she went to the doctor to make enquiries, and
finding the case to be one of scarlet fever she made efforts to
have the man removed to hospital; but owing to an unfortunate
delay he was not removed until the evening of the 27th. The
case was duly reported, and the infected room was disinfected on
the 28th July. The following cases subsequently occurred in the
same house, but they were concealed; the receipt of the Kegistrar's
weekly return on August 22nd, which contained the record of the
first death on August 12th, ten days previously, ultimately revealing
the outbreak: —
Boy, aged 5 years, attacked Aug. 5th. Family of
Girl, „ 1¼ „ „ „ 6th, died Aug 12th. occupier, a
Wife, „ 33 ,, „ „ 12th. Butcher.
Girl, „ 5 „ „ „ 11th. Family of
Boy, „ 3 „ „ „ 12th, died Aug. 22nd. lodger, a
Wife, „ 32 „ , 12th. Butler
Girl, „ 1½ „ „ „ 13th. Butler
The butler, it may be added, remained at home to attend upon
his family; and the butcher was not allowed to go to his work
after the Inspector's visit. The outbreak furnishes a good illustration
of the necessity of a registration of infectious diseases, and