View report page

70
1879 the previous year. This shows an improvement in the proportion
of removals last year. It should be observed that the
per centage of removals has increased each year for the last four
years. In the year 1878, notwithstanding the fact that most
energetic efforts were made to get cases removed to hospitals,
only 507 of the reported cases were removed. It is certainly
very satisfactory to notice that official influence should have
so far increased that the per centage of removals should have
risen to 90.2. It is probable also that the per centage of concealed
cases has greatly decreased, for as I have before stated,
there was only I death from smallpox registered last year as
occurring out of the Smallpox Hospital. Of the 42 cases
reported in the parish of Fulham, 39 were removed to a hospital
and properly isolated; 3 were treated at home and not properly
isolated. Of the 9 in the parish of Hammersmith, 7 were removed
to a hospital and properly isolated; 2 were treated at
home and not properly isolated. Thus, of the cases reported in
Fulham, 92.9 per cent. were properly isolated, and of those in
Hammersmith 77'8. The actual number of cases reported in
Hammersmith is, however, too small for this per centage to be
of much practical significance. It is more than probable also
that there was a larger proportion of concealed cases in the
parish of Fulham last year than there was in the parish of
Hammersmith. The medical men in the latter parish
showed a strong inclination to assist in the adoption of a proper
system of isolation; such was not altogether the case in the
parish of Fulham. Still, however, the most valuable assistance
was received from the leading medical men in the district. The
parish of Fulham owes a debt of gratitude to Drs. Daniell and
Murdoch for the very valuable assistance they have on numerous
occasions rendered during the prevalenceof the smallpox epidemic.
I will only state that I wish some other medical men in the same
parish would take a lesson from the wise and professional course
that has been adopted by these gentlemen. Of the 5 cases that were
treated at home, 3 were not reported till after the recovery of
the patients. In one case the patient died while the Inspector
went to fetch the ambulance, and in one case the patient was too
bad to be removed. Out of 37 cases that were reported, in not
one single instance did a second person contract the disease after
the removal of the first case. On the other hand, from one of the
three cases that were treated at home, 3 other persons contracted
the disease. The first case, at Chesson Road, was not reported
till the sixth day of illness, when the patient was in "articulo
mortis." The result was that 4 other persons were afterwards
attacked in the same house. At Reargate, also, the first case