Mr. John Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon an inquiry concerning an outbreak of typhus fever at Nazareth House, Hammersmith : with special reference to the alleged neglect in that institution of house and personal sanitation.

  • Spear, John.
Date:
1883
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. John Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon an inquiry concerning an outbreak of typhus fever at Nazareth House, Hammersmith : with special reference to the alleged neglect in that institution of house and personal sanitation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    r. John Spear’s Report to the Local Government .boarmipon an inquiry concerning an outbreak of Typhus Fever at Nazareth JIousp, Hammersmith, with special reference to the alleged negl©cfc>M*that Institution of house and personal sanitation. . hji '3RMIY _ J C, — WWim ——I 4-IP George Buchanan, Medical Department, May 23, 1883. Nazareth House is a home, maintained and administered by a number of Sisters of the Order of Nazareth, for the succour of the aged poor, without regard to their religious faith, and of destitute children. The Home is at present fully occupied, and the inmates are as follows: The reverend Mother, the assistant Mother, and 51 Sisters of Charity; 133 old people of both sexes; 175 children, of ages ranging from a few months to 16 years. The total number of inmates is thus 361. No domestic servants are employed; the sisters, with a little aid from the old people, and from the elder girls who are in training for domestic service, performing all the household duties. Some 40 ladies are regularly employed about the establishment, while the remainder go all over London in quest of alms. Ten sisters are constantly engaged in the personal care and nursing of the children. I.—The Outbreak of Fever. The difficulty of obtaining an accurate history of this outbreak of typhus fever will be understood when it is said that the first case dates back to the middle of October last, and that the subsequent cases, for at least three months, are said to have been so mild as to arouse little suspicion of fever in the mind of Mr. Alderton, the medical attendant of the Home. It is pretty certain, however, that the first to be attacked was a child, E. L., who sickened on or about the 22nd October. No previous sickness for some time had been noticed amongst the children at Nazareth House, and no case of the least suspicion amongst the elder inmates E. L. was thought to be suffering from “ influenza,” but the sister who nursed her remembers now a measly rash, that deafness was a prominent symptom, and that the hair afterwards fell off, so as to leave the head almost bald. This child was visited it appears on the visiting Sunday previous to her attack, October 8th, by an uncle, and a cousin a child of three years of age. The man was noticed to be looking ill, and is said to have spoken, in reply to inquiries by the sisters, of “ fever” in his home. He occupied, I found, a very bad cellar dwelling, consisting of two tiny, ill-lighted, and ill-ventilated rooms in Albany Street. He denies that he spoke of fever, but states that on the day in question he took his child to Hammersmith “ for change of air,” as the child was then recovering from some illness. He too had been ailing with, as he believes, a cold; and the mother likewise appears to have suffered from some indefinite indisposition, caused, as she thought, by the closeness of the dwelling Six other families had rooms, although of a much superior kind, in the house in Albanv Street, and it does not appear that illness of a suspicious character occurred amongst them. Of the child’s illness I could not obtain any definite medical account, for the doctor had, he said, forgotten it. The mother tells me that the child sickened suddenly on September 19th, with <s inward convulsions,” that the cause of the illness was thought at first to be “ inflammation of the membranes of the brain,” but that the doctor said he must have been mistaken when the child somewhat suddenly showed symptons of improvement. The child was left very weak, so that he could not walk for some time, and it was then, on October the 8th, that he was taken to Nazareth House. The history, it will be seen, is not unlike that of typhus fever in a child. Returning to the fever at Nazareth House, the attacks from this time forward were evidently due to personal contagion; and they all occurred, with one exceptiou, amongst the elder, or “ class-room ” children, and amongst the sisters in attendance upon them. These children (all girls) number about 70 of the 175 children of the home ; and four sisters are regularly engaged in their tuition and management. It was 11 7080. 100.-5/83. G. 48. E. & S.