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8
Three deaths were registered during the year from Small-pox. One of
these deaths was credited to Whitechapel. The patient was a traveller
whose business took him between Paris and Jerusalem. He felt ill upon
arriving in Paris, and he therefore hastened to some friends living in
Davis' Mansions. These people at once took him to the German Hospital,
From there he was sent to the Metropolitan Asylums' Board Hospital
Ship, where he shortly afterwards died from ' Hœmorrhagic Small-pox.'
In the last two weeks of the year the Hospital Ships contained 12 persons
suffering from Small-pox. While I am writing this part of my Report
over 30 cases are under treatment.
Influenza has again been epidemic in London, and has been responsible
for many deaths, and Whitechapel has not escaped the
visitation. The disease assumes many types. Scarcely two epidemics
present the same symptoms. Generally, however, some chest disease
accompanies or follows the attack and becomes part of the certified cause
of death. The sudden onset of any complaint attended by chest symptoms
and accompanied by a high temperature, should cause the patient to stay in
bed and receive prompt medical attention.
Although the deaths from Enteric Fever during the year only number
15 as against 9 in the year 1898, the number of cases of the disease
increased threefold. As usual, it was in the Autumn months when the
Fever cases were most numerous. With the exception of several instances
where more than one case occurred in the same house, the cases were
sprinkled fairly equally throughout the District. The whole of the East of
London participated in this increase of the disease. I have sought in vain
for some probable cause of the outbreak. I am happy to report that with
the close of the year the number of notifications became satisfactorily
reduced.
At the close of last summer the Chairman of the Public Health Committee
together with your Clerk and myself had a conference with a
Medical Inspector of the Local Government Board on the subject of
Bubonic Plague.
It was known at Oporto that an outbreak of the disease had taken place.
English ports were in some danger of receiving persons who might be
suffering from the plague, or be in the incubative stage of the disease.
Suggestions were made by the Inspector which conveyed the desire of the
Local Government Board upon the subject. Your Board readily consented
to adopt the Inspector's suggestion, and it was very soon arranged that any
person coming from an infected port should be placed under the observation
of a medical man. Two gentlemen consented to act in case of necessity,
but fortunately their services have not been required.
Cognate to the question of infectious diseases is the method of collecting
and returning infected articles which require stoveing. A wire cage upon
rollers is placed upon a trolley with spider wheels; the infected articles
are placed in the cage, which is covered with sail canvas. At the oven door
the cage is rolled off the trolley into the machine. When disinfection is
complete the cage is pulled out from the other end of the machine on to the
trolley and wheeled to its destination. Tho articles are not thus disturbed
at the yard.