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63
In the course of my examination, the facts of the above
"notable outburst" were communicated to me, and I was asked
whether there had been any similar outbursts around the
hospital? I knew of only one, and that one still more
severe, occurring in the month of April, 1878.* Thirty cases
were admitted into Fulham Hospital from Kensington, mostly
from the "special area," in six days (April 15-20), in addition to
27 admitted from Chelsea and Fulham, and irrespective of home
treated cases. This outburst, however, occurred not at the ''commencement
of the epidemic," but when the epidemic was at its
height: the atmospheric conditions, moreover, on the infection
days (approximately March 30—April 4) were very different to
those of January 13—17, 1881. The mean temperature, (40°)
it is true, was below the average, but, it was 18° higher than in
January, 1881: the atmosphere was clear, not foggy, the air was
not still, for the horizontal movement, on an average, was 90 miles
per day in excess, the general direction of the wind being S.W.†:
lastly, ozone was present in the air.
Here then we have two "notable outbursts" occurring under
conditions as opposite as can well be imagined, so that inferences
drawn from facts in respect of the one, qua origin, are neutralized
by inferences fairly deducible in respect of the other, There
was, however, one feature common to the two periods, and a
most important one, to which I alluded in my evidence,
viz., a sudden rise in the quantity of small-pox in the
metropolis generally. "There was a great increase in the
number of cases, and a great increase in the mortality:
a concurrence of great local prevalence and great general
prevalence of the disease : the number of patients in Fulham
Hospital and the number of patients in all the hospitals rose
rapidly," and as regards the April, 1878, "outburst" the deaths
*Vide Appendix to Report of Commission, pages 267 and 361.
†The hospital records show only five oases infected, April 7—13, on
which days the wind was continuously east, or easterly : on the "wind theory"
many persons should have been infected in Kensington in this week,
but four of the five cases were in Fulham,