View report page

57
mention that there were more cases of small' pox on the side
of I field Road farthest away from the hospital, than on
the nearer side, while there were none at all in Adrian Mews,
which is about opposite, and still nearer, the hospital, lying
to the west of Ifield Road, under the Cemetery wall.
But to resume, and admitting small-pox to be more
prevalent around hospitals than elsewhere,* does it
follow that the disease is spread by dissemination of
" particulate" small-pox matter from the hospital as alleged ?
This is a question which the Commission carefully considered,
and at page 25 in their report they have given "a resume of the
case for atmospheric dissemination," on the evidence brought
before them, whilst on the following page they state the grounds
that may be urged against a belief in widely extending
atmospheric dissemination, and which may be employed in
support of a (more probable) theory of spread of infection by
"personal communication." They refer also to an admission
by Mr. Power that "the graduated distribution of disease
around the hospitals is as explicable by personal communication
as by atmospheric dissemination." "With such
a hypothesis," says Mr. Power (meaning that of dissemination),
"equally with a hypothesis of conveyance by human movements, the
gradation of hospital influence from centre to periphery would be
in complete accordance: "the italics are in the Commissioners'
report.
"The admission is so material that it ought to be developed. Let us," say
the Commissioners, "replace the image of a wave, which is suggestive
of one hypothesis, by an image equally appropriate, but adjusted to the
other. Instead of an expanding wave, let us imagine a number of
converging and diverging lines of infection. It is plain in the first
place, that along these lines—the lines of hospital communication—
the incoming and outgoing of persons and things would offer more
occasion of disease wherever these persons or things were likely to
pause in their route, aud by consequence more in the immediate
neighbourhood of the hospital than farther off. But disregarding this
"The Hospitals Commission, however, refer to the fact that evidence was given of
districts remote from hospitals presenting a greater intensity of small-pox than in
any of the hospital districts—an intensity attributed to overpopulation,
neglect of sanitary precautions, &c. (vide Report, page 23).