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15
two very bad, but still capable of removal. Both rooms and the
beds contained in them, were used by the sick, so that the rest
of the family occupied the same rooms and probably the same
beds with the them, as there was not any other bed clothing than
those on the sick. The patients, grown up women, refused to
go to the Workhouse Hospital, but after much persuasion they
were removed by the Sanitary Officers to Mrs. Gladstone's
Hospital, and fresh bedding supplied to the family from the
Workhouse.
Several Summonses were taken out under the Sanitary Act
against persons who removed clothing and other articles without
previous disinfection, and against others having charge of the sick
who had allowed individuals affected with Small Pox to be
exposed in a public place; also against an Undertaker for
removing in an open cart the dead body of a person who had
died from Small Pox. In two cases the Magistrate fined washerwomen
for taking in washing and sending it home without
disinfection, when they had Small Pox in the house; another
person was fined for sending his servant through the public
streets to her home when she was suffering from the disease.
The Summons against the undertaker was dismissed, although
I proved that the coffin was covered with cloth and removed to
his shop instead of to our mortuary, on the ground that a coffin
containing a dead body did not come within the meaning of the
Act. The father of a patient was also fined twenty-five shillings
for removing the clothes and bedding, which his son had used
whilst ill, without previously disinfecting them.
In consequence of rag and other refuse being thrown into the
dust holes at the Small Pox and Fever Hospitals, Homerton, I
paid several visits there and wrote some letters, which eventually
induced the Managers to order all poultices and rags to be