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19
of person I may mention that the man had come
from Coventry, not having slept in a bed for three
weeks. He had doubtless been in various public
houses, cottages, barns, shops. &c., begging and
obtaining food, and must have brushed up against
many people in the course of his peregrinations.
The Medical Officers of Health for the various
districts through which he had passed were communicated
with and as far as could be learnt the
disease had not been communicated to others.
Diphtheria.
Twenty-one cases have been reported, with 3
deaths. The cases were generally of a mild type.
One of the fatal cases was the child of a bootmaker
aged 4. On Saturday, October 12th, a female tramp
purchased a pair of boots and left her old boots
behind her in the shop. They were put out in the
yard and remained there till Monday, when they
were taken away by the dustman. On the 15th the
child was ailing, and was notified to me on the 19th
as suffering from Diphtheria. On 19th, Saturday
evening, the husband of the tramp came into the
shop and told the proprietor his wife had Diphtheria.
Unfortuately his name and address were not taken,
and although enquiry was made in all the common
lodging houses, and the police and poor law authorities
notified, no trace of the woman could be
obtained. It was ascertained that the child was in
the yard on the Sunday morning, and it is quite
possible she may have played with the boots and
derived the infection from them.
In one case notified the patient had come home
ill from a house in Surbiton where she had been in
service. The M.O. H for Surbiton inspected the
house, but he was unable to find anything to account
for the origin of the disease. When she left