The aerial convection of small-pox from hospitals / by John C. McVail.
- John McVail
- Date:
- 1894
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The aerial convection of small-pox from hospitals / by John C. McVail. 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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![SMAI.T.-PUX KllO.M IIOSI'ITAI.S. locical inquiiy elicited tlie fact tliat the jjeiiod fi-om Jan. 12tli to'jan. 18th (that is, a fortnight preceding the outbreak) was characterised by still, sometimes foggy, weather, with occasional light airs from nearly all points of the compass. These conditions singularly resemble those which Water- house had long before recorded as accompanying similar outbreaks; and, indeed, I may note in passing that the similarity of the conclusions arrived at by the two observers is a ver}'striking fact in view of the obvious inacquaintance of the later investigator with the ground that had beeii traversed by the New-England Professor a hundred years before. It is of great consequence here to note what were the inquiries made so as to exclude the likelihood of personal conveyance. They are stated as follows before the Royal Commission : I took all possible means. I did not finish off a case, so to speak, at one sitting, but went back to it, and, as Avell, got additional information from friends, and so on ; and then I reconsidered the case, and tried, so to speak, to live over again the attacked person's life during the time when I regarded him as having become infected. And thus I returned again and again to a patient with a view of getting information upon a point I might have overlooked, or that he or his friends might have overlooked. A great man}^ of the people got interested in the question, and thought the thing over with me. For instance, a commei'cial traveller sent home for all his official books as to his daily doings, and we went through the whole thing together, as to where he was at this and that hour on each of certain days. Wherevei' they could, the people helped me very much, and the neighbours helped me too. I do not think anything was missed, because I was morning, noon, and night in the liospital or about it, seeing tlie people and their friends. I used to deal with the patient in the first instance—that is, if he was well enough, and few were so ill in the early stage of their attack that tliey could not give account of themselves. I would first ask them ques- tions as to whether there had been any illness in their house, however trivial, and then go through with them their doings on particular days, when I supposed they might have.got their infection. I would ascertain whether on ]jarticular days they were in the district and Avhere, or out of the district and where, with a view to ascertaining whether they could have got their small-pox within the district or outside of it. And I asked special questions as to whether thev couM have had conuuunicatlon with](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21361861_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
