View report page

69
were removed to hospital at one time ; and yet there was no outburst
of the disease in either locality, although the conditions for
spread were about as favourable, in some respects, as could well
be. But to resume:
We have seen that 22 persons in South Kensington were infected
in four days: invsaion dates, June 1st—4th. In the following 38
days, completing a period of six weeks, to July 12th, only 21 persons
were invaded. In the succeeding four weeks, July 13th—August
9th, the new cases fell to two, while in the next four monthly periods,
bringing us down to November 1st, the new cases were 0, 3, 2 and 9,
respectively, the hospital having been open continuously. All this
time the cases occurring in North Kensington were few in
number, as may be seen on reference to the table (page 65).
At the end of the year, in a period of eight weeks, 41 cases were
recorded in South Kensington, 3, 3, 3, 8, 7, 7, 4 and 6 in the
consecutive weeks. The maximum number of patients in the
hospital during this period, at the end of any week, was 18: 18
was the largest number of new cases admitted in any week, and
not more than 13 "transfers" to other hospitals were made in any
week. It may be said, therefore, that, even at this period, there
was no excessive quantity of small-pox in South Kensington
(population 85,000), and no excessive number of patients in the
Western Hospital. Moreover, as the admissions and the transfers
were few, there was no excessive quantity of small-pox traffic in
the district around the hospital. The hospital operations were
mainly restricted to Borough of Chelsea cases, for only 90 cases
from other parishes were admitted in 1884. The re-opening of
the hospital was, in fact, necessitated by the extension of smallpox
from the East end to the parishes constituting the borough,
first of all, and notably, to Kensington. The admissions never
exceeded 46 in a fortnight, and they fell off considerably when, at
the latter end of June, the plan of sending "mild" cases to the
Hospital Ships direct from their own homes was brought into
operation.
In a previous section (page 43) I have referred to the epidemic
as it affected the Metropolis in 1884. We have seen that it