Observations of the Medical Officer of Health upon the Report of Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-03. Ordered by the Port Sanitary and Hospitals Committee to be printed 27th April, 1905. / [by E.W. Hope].
- Liverpool (England). Port Sanitary and Hospitals Committee.
- Date:
- 1905
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Observations of the Medical Officer of Health upon the Report of Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-03. Ordered by the Port Sanitary and Hospitals Committee to be printed 27th April, 1905. / [by E.W. Hope]. 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.
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![3. THE ALLEGED INFLUENCE OF THE HOSPITALS. It is. howevei', with tlie third matter that the great bulk of Dr. Eeece's Keport deals, and the im})ortance of this section calls for more detailed examination, since if Dr. Keece's assertions are well founded the Hospital for Smallpox, erected upon a site carefully selected foi' the purpose, and approved of by the Local Government Board after full and complete hiquiries by the Board's experienced Inspectors, must be closed as a public danger. The Corporation of Liveipool and the Hospitals Committee, as well as the Local Government Board, are therefore seriously concerned to know whether the conclusion come to by Dr. Keece— viz., I am compelled to consider that the influence of these hospitals has been I'esponsible in material degree for the considerable and sustained prevalence of smallpox in Liverpool in 1902-3—is justified by the facts available for his consideration, or whether the suppression and disregard of these facts (for no reference has been made to them in his Report) lender his conclusions valueless. It is necessary for the information of the Committee to make some pi-eliminary observations upon the general question of small- pox diffusion by aii', and the evidence upon which it is based. It was in 1882 that some valuable Reports were placed before the Local Government Board by the late Sir Richard Thorne Thorne, and by Mr. W. H. Power, the former dealing with Fever Hospitals, the latter with Smallpox Hospitals; both Iveports have exerted an exceedingly beneficial influence in this country, in regard to hospital construction, location, and administration. In regard to the question now under consideration, special interest attaches to the Report of Mr. W. H. Power, the present Medical Adviser of the Local Government Board, who, as the result of careful and prolonged investigation into the circumstances attending the use of the Fulham Hospital for Smallpox, was led to the conclusion that under certain conditions, smallpox had been spread from the hospital by means which could not be ascribed to any of the ordinary channels of infection, but which pointed, as his evidence showed, to atmospheric diffusion, or aerial convection. The care and impartiality in examining and weighing evidence, and the conciseness and lucidity of his Report, rendered the conclusions very convincing, and the inferences received a wide acceptance. But Mr. Power was careful to point out that Smallpox is a disease infectious beyond all others of its class. Not only does it spread with greater facility than, for instance, scarlatina 01' typhus, but the measures of isolation and other })recautions against dissemination which suffice with those diseases are, as regards smallpox, altogetliei' futile. Not only is it unsafe to })lace smallpox in hospitals side by side with othei- infectious diseases, but it is also unsafe to deal with linen, blankets, bedding, cSL'c, of .smallpox patients in any but a separate laundry. Further, smallpox can without doubt be readily transmitted to others by persons who have been in close i-elation with the disease, though they themselves may not suffer fiom it; and similarly, smallpox may be tiansmitted witli compaiative readiness in clothing, ])aicels, Sec, from an infected to a previously uninfected dwelling ' Cases of smallpox, themselves so little seiious as to be mistaken for 'chicken ])0x,' have in our ordinary e.xpei'ience the })Ower of produciiig in unprotected persons severe attacks of the disease.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21360054_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
