Observations of the Medical Officer of Health [E.W. Hope] upon the report of Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-3.

  • Hope, E. W. (Edward William), 1855-1950.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Observations of the Medical Officer of Health [E.W. Hope] upon the report of Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-3. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    The addresses were as follows, viz.:—No. 116, Delamore Street; No. 55, Downing Street; No. 163, Airfield Road; No. 26, Exmouth Street; No. 14, Makin Street; No. 15, Picton Grove; No. 54, Burdett Street. There is not the least reason to assume that the source of infection of the case at No. 163, Airfield Road was the Priory Road Hospital, because Airfield Road is within the quarter to half mile radius, or that the source of infection of the case at No. 54, Burdett Street, was the Parkhill Hospital, because Burdett Street is within the half to three-quarter mile radius; or that the source of infection of the case at No. 55, Dowming Street, was the Priory Road Hospital, because Downing Street is within the three-cpiarter to one mile radius. Purther amplification of these cases is surely unnecessary to prove to any unprejudiced mind the part played in the recent outbreak by the ordinary channels of infection. It was the knowledge of these facts, and the practical use made of this knowledge, which enabled the staff to discover 470 of the smallpox patients,—nearly one-fourth of the total number attacked during the epidemic—before any medical man had been called in or had had time to notifv. Notwithstanding that these facts were all brought fully to Dr. Reece’s notice, not one single reference is made to them in his Report. His whole energies have been absorbed in preparing maps with spots and rings, and nothing coming under his notice during the eleven months of his research has tempted him to any other view of the matter than that which he announced at the outset as the only completely satisfactory one.