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during 1898. This is the first case which has occurred in
the District since 1895. The case was one of a child a few
months' old. It was the child of a member of Wolfe's
Travelling Circus, and arrived in Penge on the night of
December 22nd, 1898. No Doctor saw the child alive in
England, as it died during the night. The Medical Man
who saw the dead body certified it as having died from small
pox and I was immediately communicated with. The body
was at once removed to the Mortuary where I saw it. It
was a case of confluent small pox. I immediately had the
three people who were with the child removed in an ambulance
to Hither-green Hospital. The clothes they were
wearing were burned, and they were thoroughly disinfected
and isolated for 18 days, and were all re-vaccinated. The
bedding of the room they had occupied was burned, and the
room disinfected and whitewashed, walls stripped, &c. I
saw Mr. Wolfe, the proprietor of the Circus, and he agreed
to have all the troop vaccinated except those who had very
well marked scars of vaccination, and this was done. At
first sight it looked as if there was certain to be an outbreak
as the baby had been in contact with so many members of
the troop, but fortunately no fresh case appeared. The baby
had travelled with the troop from Antwerp. It had been
seen by a Medical Man there who said it was suffering from
measles but might safely travel Probably, at the time he
saw the child, the rash had not properly come out, but at the
time of its death it was very fully developed.
Diseases of the Respiratory Organs.
The total number of deaths from diseases of the respiratory
organs was 224, as compared with 183 in the previous
year. Of this number 36 deaths were attributed directly
to Influenza, as compared with 12 deaths in 1897, 11 deaths
in 1896, and 61 deaths in 1895.