Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents. 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.

    14/108 (page 2)
    PART I. Introductory Remarks. ()u the afternoon of October 2nd, 1910, the Board received information from Dr. Sleigh, medical officer of health of the Samford Rural District, relative to the death at Preston in that district of four ])ersons fiom what was regarded locally as pueumonic plague, under circumstances whicdi pointed to the con- (dusion thfit the disease had spread from person to person by in- fection. The medical officer of health added that the source of the disease remained a mjv^stery, the patient first attacked not having been out of the district, and there being no evidence to indicate that infection had been introduced into the district from without. It had been observed, he stated, that a great many rats were dying in the neighbourhood, a circumstance which he thought might be explained by the custom which obtained among the farmers of laying down rat poison at that time of year. All persons who had been in contact with the patients were being kept under observation, and all infected premises and articles had been disinfected. TT])on receipt of this communication I was instructed to visit the locality to make inquiries into the outbreak. This I did early on the following morning (October 3rd), and the investigation involved, together with the subs«‘quent dev(do])ments, occupied the whole of my time for the next tliree months. 'ropoyrnyhy oml Circumstances of the Invaded Area. d’he accompanying maj) (whi(dj faces p. 40) will serve to show that the eastern ])ortiou of the Samford Rural District in whi(di these occuiretices took place forms in effect a peninsula between the estuai’ies of the (,)rwell and the Stour, the base of the penin- sula, if so it may be termed, being the Great Pastern Railway line between Ipswich and Manningtree. 3’his to})ographical circumstance is of importance, since it means that this portion of the Samford Rural District is in a measure shut off by tbe Orwell on the north and east and by the Stour on the south. The remainder of the administrative district extends some miles inland, its total length from east to west being about 15 miles, and its greatest width from north to south about 0 miles. At its north-Avesterii extremity the district abuts for some three miles upon the county borough of I])swich. The house first invaded by the disease (see A on map) was the central one of a row of three cottages known as “ Latimer Cottages,’' which are situated a few yards back from the Holbrook Road, at a i)oint about a mile to the south-east of its junction with the road to Chelinon- diston and Shotley. These cottages are distant about 4 miles from Ipswich, 3 from Chelmondiston, and H in a direct line from the estuary of the Orwell. Ipswich, a county borough with some 75,000 inhabitants, is a - port at which a large number of grain-laden vessels from foreign