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37
SMALL-POX.
During the year 89 cases of Small-Pox were notified. The deaths
from the same disease numbered 14.
The annual mortality per 1000 living was 06.
Deaths from Small-Pox during the last ten years :—
1892
—
1897
1
1893
13
1898
—
1894
2
1899
—
1895
4
1900
—
1896
1
1901
14
Report submitted to the Council on 23rd July, 1902, on the Epidemic of
Small-Pox in Southwark during 1901, and from January 1st
to June 28th, 1902.
"For many years previous to the present epidemic Southwark had
been entirely free from Small-pox. From time to time cases had been
reported as belonging to the true disease but they were found on examination
not to be as certified.
Small-pox in epidemic form was prevalent in Paris during 1900.
The disease reached its maximum towards the end of that year and then
rapidly declined. In the spring of 1901 it recommenced and again was
at its height in the months of June and July. There are strong grounds
for believing that persons arriving in London from the Continent introduced
the disease into the Metropolis. About the end of June, 1901,
several independent outbreaks of Small-pox occurred in different parts of
London. An unrecognised case in Wandsworth was followed by a very
serious spread of the disease, not only in that district, but in many other
boroughs. Cases appeared in Marylebone, in St. Pancras, in Islington,
and a little later in Holborn. The rapidity with which the disease at
first spread in some of these districts was thought to be largely due to
the difficulty, owing to the mildness of the complaint, of getting the cases
recognised early, or in persuading the parents that any care was required.
The first case which occurred in Southwark was that of a compositor,
who was accustomed to visit a social club in the Clerkenwell Road, where
an outbreak of the disease had occurred. He was removed to hospital on
August 21st. The disinfector, who attended to the room and who had
not been re-vaccinated, fell ill with the disease at the end of the fortnight,
and he in turn communicated it to his bed-fellow, a Borough dustman.
For some time the disease spread very slowly in the Borough, only 11
cases being notified up to November 7th. In the course of the epidemic