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Dr. Gwynn, Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead, in like manner
has testified to the prevalence of small-pox in the streets by which
the North-Western Hospital is approached. He has noticed
however, comparative freedom from the disease in a portion of his
district near to the hospital, but off the line of small-pox traffic.
Dr. Walter Verdon, Medical Officer of Health for Lambeth, while
admitting the greater prevalence of small-pox in the vicinity of the
South-Western Hospital at Stockwell, as compared with other
parts of the parish, has referred to one portion of the district
near to the hospital, but off the line of traffic, where there has
been little small-pox. "The railway line running from Brixton to
Clapham" (he writes) "lies south of the hospital, and bisects both
the half and quarter mile radius. There is no direct means of
transit between the north and south sides of this line, between the
two points where it bisects the quarter-mile radius, and a greater
part of the south section of the half-mile area is also cut off from
any direct communication with the hospital approaches, by this line
of railway. The lines of sewage are divided as well as the roads.
Now, in this area, so cut off from the hospital, during the whole of
the epidemic in 1884 only three cases occurred. I think this
point is one of great interest, as this line of rails is not many feet
above the level of the surrounding ground, where it bisects the
quarter mile area; and we find on the one side 49 cases, and on
the other side of this line only one case within this area. I think
it is a fair inference that the want of continuity of road and sewer
communication may have some part in the unequal distribution of
the disease, as this barrier could scarcely interfere with the
dissemination of the disease through the air."
Dr. Bristowe, it may be mentioned, has not felt certain that
the spread of small-pox in Camberwell may not be in some
measure connected with the sewerage of the Ward chiefly affected
by the disease. There does not, however, appear to be much
evidence connecting the spread of small-pox with drainage
arrangements.
The freedom from small-pox of the City of London Infirmary,
Bow, adjacent to the Eastern Hospital, is a well known fact