View report page

21
The disease was also carried to a distance by a child living at
No. 6, who, when apparently well, was removed to a friend's rooms,
and infected five other children in the buildings to which he was
taken. The total number of reported cases which were caused
by the one child treated at home in No. 6, was no less than 52.
This is instructive, as showing the difference as to persistence of the
disease in the vicinity of the Hospital, where we can never stamp
out the disease, whereas it was got under here in less than two
months. There was a severe outbreak in 1871 and a slight one
in 1877 in some of these streets, which are and were then
occupied by very poor people with a large number of children,
who indiscriminately play with one another in the streets.
In Clifden Road, and also in Templar Road, which are near
the Hospital, the disease was most rife when the Hospital
oontained more than 150 patients, being exceedingly prevalent
from early in May, 1881, to August 6th, when the excessive
number was reduced to a little more than 100, the largest
number in the Hospital during this interval being 347. We
could not trace the cases from one to another in Clifden and
Templar Roads in the same way as in the streets above named
at West Hackney. I would also mention that three outbreaks
of small pox occurred in a large establishment where washing
was taken in. Besides the ordinary steps for the prevention of
the disease which were taken by the Sanitary Staff, the Inspectors
distributed above 3,000 bills, recommending re-vaccination
amongst the poor, and above 3,000 more were sent to the Clergymen,
Schoolmasters and District Visitors, for distribution amongst
the Scholars and Inhabitants of their Districts. I also usually
advised re-vaccination whenever I visited infected premises. In
spite, however, of all these preventive measures, the total deaths
from small pox in Hackney in 1881 reached to 119 per 100,000
inhabitants, against 61.8 in all London, so that the death-rate
in this District was nearly double that for all London.
I have now to lay before you some further information
respecting the incidence of small pox at different ages, and