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prevalence comprises the earlier months of the year. Liability to
attack appears to be equal in the two sexes. With regard to age
adolescents seem to be most vulnerable, but in respect of fatality the
risks to life increase with age. Authorities have held the period of
incubation to last from five to twelve days.
The outbreak began in the middle of February and ended with
the last week in March, no case, even of a suspicious character, being
brought to light after that date.
Eight cases in all were reported, of which one proved fatal,
giving a case mortality of 12.5 per cent. These eight cases involved
four families, three persons being attacked in two families and a single
sufferer in each of the other two.
The particulars of the cases are given below:—
Case 1. C. I., aged 22, a nurse attached to the Plaistow
Maternity Charity and District Nurses' Home, was admitted
to the Plaistow Fever Hospital on 11th February as a suspected
case of Typhus. She appears to have been attacked on 9th
February. The diagnosis was confirmed on 15th February,
the patient exhibited well marked crisis on 23rd February, and
subsequently made an uninterrupted recovery. In the meantime
her cubicle and clothing at the Home had been thoroughly
disinfected. A list of all the cases which this nurse had
attended during the previous month was carefully gone
through, but with the single exception of one case of recovery
from Pneumonia in a boy, whom she had left more than
three weeks before her attack, no patient likely to have caused
her illness could be found. No other case occurred in connection
with the Home.
Case 2. D. B., a girl aged 13 years, of 2, Poplar Street
was admitted to the West Ham Union Infirmary on 17th