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19
4
It has been noted in this Parish and elsewhere, that when
cases are under treatment at the Hospital, houses are invaded
in the quarter and half mile areas round the Hospital.
It is of considerable importance to arrive at a definite conclusion
upon the manner in which the contagion of Small
Pox is carried from the Hospital to the surrounding houses.
Dr. Power, the Inspector of the Local Government Board,
after a long and careful examination of the details of several
outbreaks in the neighbourhood of Fulham Hospital, arrived
at the conclusion that under certain atmospheric conditions
particles were conveyed by the air from the sick patients in
the Hospital to the healthy in the surrounding district. My
own observations have led me to believe that aerial dissemination,
although perhaps one of the factors, is not the
principal factor in the causation of the incidence of Small
Pox in the vicinity of Stockwell Hospital. There has
undoubtedly been an exceptional prevalence, but there
arc certain facts which oppose themselves to this theory.
First.—The immunity enjoyed by the inhabitants of certain
houses and districts within the half-mile area.
Second.—The immunity enjoyed by infants under the age
of three months, and therefore unprotected by vaccination.
Third.—The distribution of the houses invaded in relation
to their connexion with the Sewer that receives the Hospital
drainage.
Taking the first argument in opposition to this theory, my
report for 1884 referred to the immunity of the inhabitants
on the west side of Hargwyne Street, about 300 in number,
and of the large district in the half-mile area, divided from the
Hospital by the line of rails. Assuming the truth of the
theory, it is difficult to explain by what means these two
localities escaped an invasion.
On the second point, upon a search of the register of births
it was found that 427 children were born within the half-mile
area in the first six months of 1885: speaking generally these