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13
between the hospital and Templar Road, and the Fever
Hospital and Clifden Road, do not seem to have had any effect
in preventing the spread of the disease in these streets. It also
agrees with this view, that The Grove intervenes between the
hospital and Holmbrook Street, and yet the inhabitants of The
Grove did not suffer much in 1883-84, and those of Holmbrook
Street did. The disease was, however, very severe in The Grove
in former epidemics; but the same may be said of Holmbrook
Street, Brooksby's Walk, Clifden Road, and Templar Road.
A very striking outbreak took place on October 30th, and on
November 1st and 3rd, 1876, in Templar Road, Churchill Road,
College Street, and Homerton College, amounting in all to 11
cases, and without any known causes of infection. As regards
Homerton College, I would mention that the person attacked
was the only one who had not been re-vaccinated. The persons
attacked did not know one another, or have anything in
common. The wind during this first fortnight of October was
more or less southerly, veering from the west to the east, but on
the 14th and 15th it was easterly, and remained E. or N.E. for
some days. From the 13th to the 19th inclusive, its velocity
was much below the average, and it contained an unusual
amount of moisture, especially on the 14th and 15th, so that all
the conditions favourable for the spread of the disease from the
hospital to the streets were present at the time that the infection
of these persons took place. There had not been any cases in
these streets for months, so that I think I am justified in
assuming that the infection was carried by the air to the
affected persons.
In order to prevent aerial infection of the neighbourhood
surrounding a small-pox hospital, it has been proposed, I think
by Dr. Sanderson, to have the hospitals built of a circular form,
with arrangements for drawing all the air through a furnace,
and destroying all the organic matter.
There is no doubt that infection by what is called personal