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18
partially cooked form and am also publishing posters throughout the
Borough to a like effect.
I shall report to you again when any additional information is
obtained.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient servant,
CHARLES SANDERS.
The Secretary,
Local Government Board,
Whitehall, S.W.
The sudden outburst in June and the equally sudden drop at the
beginning of July, followed by a secondary crop of cases so characteristic
of enteric fever epidemics, naturally suggested that if a common
factor was to be found at all, it should be discovered in the 72 June
cases. Four of these cases proved not to be suffering from enteric
fever, leaving 68 as the total number of primary attacks in the
epidemic, of these 68 cases 40 were males and 28 females. Their ages
varied as given below:—
Under 5 years 5 cases.
Between 5 and 15 years 25 „
,, 15 and 25 „ 19 „
25 and 56 „ 19 „
The 68 cases occurred in 60 houses, one house contained 3 cases,
six houses 2 cases each, and fifty-three houses 1 case each. It will be
seen from the accompanying map of the Borough that the houses
attacked were limited to two comparatively small areas, that around
the middle of Barking Road being much the larger of the two. This
localization at once practically excluded any fear of a water-borne
epidemic, and directed attention to some other common article of diet.
Each house was visited, and each case personally interrogated, whether
at home or at hospital, with a view to ascertaining a common foodstuff
which might have been affected. The usually long incubation period
and insidious onset of this disease renders it an especially difficult