An examination of the theory of aërial dissemination of small-pox infection / by Montague D. Makuna.

  • Makuna, Montague D.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An examination of the theory of aërial dissemination of small-pox infection / by Montague D. Makuna. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    agriculture, extension of railway works and manufac- tures in the locality. They come, unguarded by vaccination or re-vaccination, live for a short time in infected haunts, and thus fall a prey to the un- known foe. In West Brompton, within half a mile of the hospital, the building operations have also been active. The houses in Adrian Terrace and Ifield Boad (it is one long street, and both the names are used indiscriminately), where the disease has been most prevalent, built for a superior class, have come to be occupied by the artizan and labouring classes. These streets are overcrowded, the intercommunication between the houses is very free, and the population ever changing. They form the borderland of the central circle of Mr. Power’s “ special area.” Higher up are houses in Coleherne Road, Westgate Terrace, Redcliffe Gardens and Square, and the turnings through them, Tregunter Road, Cathcart Road, and Fawcett Street. Still higher up are the Boltons and Onslow Gardens. On leaving the area of the central circle, we find the houses are occupied by superior classes, and in the area between half to one mile distant from the hospital some of the highest and noblest live. When cases of small-pox do occur in their houses, they are chiefly among servants who have in considerable numbers contracted it by visiting their friends in haunts of infection. It would be monstrous to draw calculations from these houses, the number of which increases the further we go from the hospital, and consequently gives a higher average on the poorer houses in Chelsea and Fulham in the same “special area round the hospital,” and thus add an argument to the speculation that the vitality of the infection diminishes the further we recede from the hospital. There are no houses within a quarter-mile of the hospital in Chelsea. Beyond this are those in Fulham Road, King’s Road, Church Street, and intersecting streets. These main streets, especially Fulham Road, which is a boundary line between Kensington and Chelsea, are composed of shops. The people in West Brompton, especially the poorer classes, deal with these shops. Had one cared to investigate the prevalence of the disease in these shop-houses in Chelsea, where there was no isolation of the sick, and everybody went in and out unguarded, sufficient cause of infection would have been found. There are