Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green]
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12
TABLE G.
Under
three
months.
0—1
1—2
2-5
5—15
15-25
25—35
Vaccinated
0
0
0
0
2
0
1
3
Not Vaccinated
3
4
3
7
10
0
0
27
Not stated
2
1
3
2
2
1
6
17
Totals
5
5
6
9
14
1
7
47
With regard to the cases of Small-pox treated in Hospital, I extract
the following information from the report of Dr. Collie, the Medical
Superintendent of the Homerton Fever Hospital:-
The Hospital was opened for the treatment of Small-pox on the 8th of December
last, and from that time until the 12th of May, when it was closed, 915 cases of that
disease were admitted, and 50 cases of other diseases. Of the former, 173 died, a
mortality of 18.8 per cent.
Dr. Gayton, the Medical Superintendent of the Small Pox Hospital,
States that:—
From the 1st of January, 1877, to the 31st of December, 1877, 1,935 Patients
were admitted; of these 1,471 were discharged recovered; 328 died, and there
remained under treatment the last day of the past year 136. The total mortality,
therefore, for the 12 months, of the completed cases, is 18 23 per cent.
From the return previously alluded to I gather that 180 of these
patients were removed from this parish, of whom 29 died.
From Mr. Jebb's return, it will be seen that 50 cases were removed
from this parish; twelve of whom have since died.
The Registrar General, in one of his recent weekly returns,
speaking of this eminently preventible disease, and referring to its
prevalence in London while almost absent from the provinces, has
the following note:—"There must be something radically wrong in
the treatment of the epidemic. Is the Vaccination Act steadily
carried out ? Have the cases, said to be vaccinated, been effectively
vaccinated ? Is the isolation of patients during and after attack carefully
carried out? There are Hospitals, and yet people die of Smallpox
in these exceptional numbers." The first question may be
answered by saying that though the Vaccination Act is carried out,
yet numerous people evade its provisions; and again, that the Act
itself is not adequate as it does not make re-vaccination compulsory.
It must also be confessed that there is a great deal of bad, that is to