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9
informed that the patient had been ill for two days before leaving
Antwerp.
The subjoined case which came under the notice of Mr. Wrack
shows how cases of infectious disease are concealed from the Sanitary
Authorities of the District. A young man, 19 years of age, died
of small-pox on the 16th July, 1879. The patient resided at No. 49,
Queen Ann Street, and had been attended by a medical practitioner
for 11 days. As Mr. Wrack was not informed of the number of the
house in which the young man died, he had great difficulty in finding
the case, as the inhabitants of the street, who are principally Irish,
obstructed him in every possible way in his endeavours to find it.
The body was uncoffined, and although only a day or two after the
death of the patient, was in a very offensive condition. It is surely
time that the law made it imperative on the owners of the house to
give immediate notice to the Sanitary Authority of the District of the
existence of such cases.
Although in this District there has been an almost perfect immunity
from small-pox during the last four quarters, yet, situated as
this District is by the side of the River, and having wharves where
foreign ships land their passengers and cargoes, we cannot prevent
the importation of this disease from abroad, as is shown by the
report recently made to the Board by Mr. Wrack, one of the Sanitary
Inspectors. From this report it appears that the Inspector's attention
was directed to a child, 18 months old, who was suffering from
small pox, at No. 106, Old Montague Street. The child, with its
mother, had only arrived at the house above-named at six o'clock in
the evening, within a few hours after landing at the wharf, and it was
immediately taken to the Medical Officer of the Union, who ordered
its removal to the Small-pox Hospital ; and the child, that same
evening, was admitted into the Hospital. The case was a very severe
one, and the child died in the course of a few days. Mr. Wrack,
without loss of time, had all the articles of bedding, clothing, &c.,
(118 in number) conveyed to the disinfecting chamber, where they
were submitted to a heat of 250 degrees. Mr. Harry Leach, the
Medical Officer of the Port Sanitary Authority, was immediately
written to, giving him all the particulars that could be then obtained
respecting the case.
The house to which the child was taken on its arrival in London
was visited daily for several days, with a view of ascertaining if any
more cases had occurred, but no other person, either in that house or
in the neighbourhood was attacked with the disease.