View report page

5
Hospital, at Homerton, as soon as the early symptoms set in,
and the bedding, &c., was disinfected. There was another family
in the house, not one of whom contracted the disease. There
was also a marked exemption as regards a child who was taken
away by its grandfather on September 9 th, and who was not
attacked, being the only member of the family who did not
suffer from the disease. From the history of this and numerous
other cases I have for many years been of opinion that enteric
fever is contagious, although not in so great a degree as scarlet
fever. Defects in the drains or water supply apparatus were found
in about one-sixth only of the total number of houses in which
the disease occurred. There was only one decided instance of
infection by milk, viz.:—where the inmates of two institutions,
one in Hackney and the other not, were attacked simultaneously
with the disease. They were both supplied by the same milkman
who had the disease in his house. On making a strict
enquiry into this case I ascertained that the person in charge of
the sick had on one occasion, about a fortnight before the
disease appeared, measured out the milk sent to these institutions,
having left the sick room for that purpose.
As regards the severe epidemic, and great loss of life from
whooping cough, I have to repeat the statement made in my
last report that the disease rarely proves fatal if sufficient care be
used in keeping the child in an uniform atmosphere during the
inflammatory stage; if proper medical treatment be adopted
during this stage; and if due supervision be exercised in preventing
too early an exposure to cold air. The manner in which
children, suffering from whooping cough, are exposed in the open
air, even in winter, to their own manifest injury, and with very
great risk to children with whom they are brought into contact,
but who have not suffered from it, is most reprehensible and
should in all instances be discouraged and, if possible, punished.
The number of deaths from diarrhœa this year, in all
London, as well as in this district, has attracted much attention,
especially amongst those who consider the prevalence of infantile