Memorandum by Dr. Buchanan on the relation of present epidemic small-pox in the Orsett Union to the M.A.B. small-pox hospital ships at Long Reach / G.S. Buchanan.

  • Buchanan, George S. (George Seaton), Sir, 1869-1936.
Date:
[1902]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Memorandum by Dr. Buchanan on the relation of present epidemic small-pox in the Orsett Union to the M.A.B. small-pox hospital ships at Long Reach / G.S. Buchanan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    1/2 (page 1)
    1OJWJ. 1929 f Memorandum By Dr. Buchanan on the Relation of Present Epidemic Small-pox in the Orsett Union to the M. A. B. Small-pox Hospital Ships at Long Reach. The ability of small-pox to spread from hospitals receiving acute cases of the disease, independently of personal communication and of lines of traffic to and from the hospital, has long received close and careful attention from the Board. Their present Medical Officer demonstrated the spread of small-pox in this way around the Metropolitan Asylums Board Fulham Hospital in 1881, and again in 1884, and subsequently, as a result of comprehensive study of the local distribution of small-pox mortality in London, he has afforded further evidence of the danger which the Metropolitan Asylums Board London Hospitals receiving acute small-pox cases used formerly to cause to unprotected persons dwelling in their vicinity. It was in consequence of this demonstration of the repeated spread of small-pox from hospitals in London that the Metropolitan Asylums Board adopted the policy of removing ail cases of this disease out of populous areas down to their Hospital Ships in Long Reach, which were taken into use in 1884. And for many years the Board, as is well known, have refused, often in the face of local opposition, to sanction a loan for the erection of any hospital in England or Wales intended for the reception of acute small-pox cases, unless the building be placed in a sparsely populated area, and the population within half a mile of the hospital does not exceed .500 to GOO. Save for the training ship “ Cornwall,” to which reference is made below, the Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals Ships in Long Reach have practically speaking no population dwelling within half a mile. Between half a mile and one mile there is but one collection of dwellings, namely, some 110 houses at Purfleet, in the Orsett Union, on the Essex side of the river. Between one and two miles from the ships there are, on the Essex side, only a few dwellings comprised in the parish of West Thurrock. Just beyond the two mile circle comes the village of West Thurrock, beyond which again are the more populous parts of the Orsett Union, including the Urban District of Grays, which is more than three miles from the ships. During the present epidemic of small-pox in the Orsett Union, the incidence of the disease has been disproportionately heavy in the village of Purfleet and in West Thurrock parish; moreover, the earliest cases of small-pox occurred among persons either dwelling in Purfleet, or associated with Purfleet by reason of their occupation. The proposition that infection was introduced into the Orsett Union at Purfleet by aerial convection from the ships over halt a mile away, and that during the epidemic air-borne infection from the ships has from time to time been responsible for further cases in Purfleet, possibly also for cases dwelling as far off as the village of West Thurrock, more than two miles away, is incapable of proof, but is one which, in view ot the knowledge which the Board has acquired from study of previous epidemics, it is impossible to dismiss as unlikely. The possibility, or the probability, of this occurrence, however, may be admitted without conceding that the magnitude of the epidemic in the Orsett Union is, save in a remote sense, to be attributed to the influence of the hospital ships. The extensive prevalence of small-pox which has occurred in Grays Urban District, in the village of Orsett, in Tilbury, and in other parts of the Union some miles away from the ships, is rather to be referred, for example, to spread of the disease within households, or from person to person, or by unrecognised cases of small-pox ; in other words, to causes which (as now in London) operate to maintain or multiply small-pox under circumstances in no way peculiar to the Orsett Union. And there can be no doubt that such agencies have also played a not inconsiderable part in portions of the Union which may be regarded as possibly or probably exposed to opportunities ot air-borne infection from the ships, for instance, Purfleet and West Thurrock. 11426—100—3/1902 G 94 Wt 36684 D&S 19