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9
from the risk of importation of infectious disorders must always be the keeping
of our ports, harbours, rivers, docks and surroundings in a thoroughly
healthful condition.
It is clearly not reasonable to expect that we can always avoid the arrival
of infection from abroad, but it is without doubt possible to prevent its
spread by so having our ports in such sanitary condition that the infection
will be unable to find a congenial resting-place.
Infection is a distinct entity with a definite vitality, but it must always be
borne in mind that the vitality depends very largely upon the conditions of
its surroundings. In a dirty, dark, ill-ventilated, and ill-drained district
where disease is once introduced it has a far greater chance of working havoc
than in one where the opposite conditions prevail.
Even in the case of cholera, the most dreaded of all plagues, it has been
shown to demonstration that with pure air, pure water, good drainage, and
thorough cleanliness, in every sense of the word, a population has but little to
fear, and on this fact our modern ideas of the futility of quarantine and the
substitution for it of a rational system of medical inspection have been
based.
SMALL-POX.
The history of small-pox in London during the half-year is soon written—
practically, there has been none.
But, inasmuch as with the absence of this disease there is as usual a
marked tendency for the only safe precaution, viz., vaccination, to become
neglected, it is precisely during such non-epidemic times that the necessity
for guarding against its introduction from abroad is apparent.
Hence, the responsibility of guarding the entrance of our port increases in
inverse ratio to the amount of the disease in London. Fortunately we have
had but few importations. Of these I give brief particulars:—
On the 25th January notice was received from the Seamen's Hospital that
a fireman who had applied at that institution for relief had been sent to the
Asylums Board's Hospital with small-pox.
He belonged to the steam ship "Raven," which arrived in the West India
Docks on 13th, the patient being at that time to all appearance in perfect health.
The vessel had left Oporto on 8th, where she had lain two days.
She left London on 15th for Newcastle, arriving on 16th, leaving again for
London on 18th.
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