View report page

3
the cases being fairly distributed throughout the more populous parts of the Borough. Diphtheria, too,
proved to be steadily increasing in the Borough. No distinct outbreak occurred which could be traced to a
common source, but a general increase throughout the Borough in the number of cases. In all, 470 cases
were notified, causing 104 deaths, besides which thirty deaths occurred from membranous croup.
In the early months of the year measles, which had been epidemic in 1892, was still very prevalent
in the northern half of the borough, while whooping-cough was raging in the southern half. The latter
disease caused 143 deaths, nearly every certificate, as is usual in the case of this disease, giving bronchitis
as a secondary cause of death. One death occurred from typhus fever; this was in a child aged five years,
at Silvertown. I only received information of the case after death, and, as other members of the family
occupied the same room, I obtained a magistrate's order for the removal of the body to a mortuary, the
bedding and clothes being destroyed prior to disinfection of the premises. No other case of this disease
occurred during the year.
Cholera.—The precautions taken by the Port Sanitary Authority of London were successful in
preventing the escape of cholera into West Ham. One case was notified, but on investigation proved
capable of having a simpler explanation. The man had, up to within three days of his illness, been
working at the river-side, but not in connection with any foreign boats. The following three days he was
without both work and food ; obtaining some money on Saturday, he spent it in a pound and a half of
apples in the afternoon, and a pound of hot potatoes in the evening, and was seized in the night with
choleraic symptoms, which quickly succumbed to treatment. No less than 201 addresses were visited in
response to intimations received that the persons whose addresses were given had left ships or places under
the suspicion of having been exposed to the risk of cholera infection. Unfortunately, at most of these
addresses the persons named were not known, in many cases the address given was a common lodginghouse
or a house of lesser repute, and we naturally lost all trace of the person sought. During the summer
the West Ham Board of Guardians granted the use of their hospital at Plaistow to the Council as a
cholera hospital in the event of an outbreak, but with the exception of the above case it was not required.
Early in September your Committee published throughout the Borough posters descriptive of the mode of
infection and precautions to be taken in the case'of cholera.
Small-pox.—A severe epidemic of this disease attacked the Borough throughout the year 1893.
and has only just ceased. As the Council desired a short history of the epidemic, I have delayed this
report until late in 1894, in order to be able to include not only an account of the small-pox statistics for
1893 but also those of the first half of 1894, which may be considered as practically the termination of the
epidemic. From the beginning of the year 1893 to the end of June, 1894, 935 cases of small-pox occurred,
causing 103 deaths, equivalent to a death-rate of 11 per cent. It is interesting to observe that more than
half the cases occurred during the six months of 1894 (448 cases occurred during the whole of 1893, and
487 during the first six months of 1894). The disease was introduced into the Borough in January and
February, from three separate sources, into three different parts of the Borough. On January 25th a sailor,
who had been visiting some friends at Bow and appeared to have contracted the disease at the West India
Docks, developed the disease at the house of a friend in Stratford New Town, and was promptly remove
to hospital. On the next day three other cases were removed from the same house. No other case