View report page

The closets were flushed from the drinking-water
cistern and it is difficult to understand how either
tenant or landlord could have remained unaware of
such insanitary conditions. The house was redrained
and the patient recovered.
Of the remainder, two were visitors and were
ailing at or immediately after arrival and were
clearly imported cases. Two others had occupations
in London and their houses were in good
sanitary state, but in one of them the medical man
attending held the opinion that probably infected
oysters were the cause.
In the remaining case there could be no
reasonable doubt that the disease was contracted
at Whitstable. The patient, a married woman,
had been staying there for a month and fell ill the
day after her return home and in a few days the
diagnosis of typhoid was confirmed. On enquiry
it was ascertained that she had partaken of oysters
there eight times during the last ten days of her
visit and was the only member of her family who
had done so. Of these six cases five recovered and
one died, but as the death did not occur until after
the turn of the year it does not appear in the
present returns. Two only of the cases were
removed to the Isolation Hospital.
It is remarkable and worthy of notice that an DiarrhC6a
unusually small number of fatal cases of diarrhoea
in 1903 is associated with the very unseasonable
13