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
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.
6/10 (page 6)
![0 remarked, adding “ she did not expect to see this in children from a school.” But these children are taught housemaids’ duties; four of the seven (aged respectively 16, 15, 14, and 14 years) had done a considerable amount of scrubbing, and, moreover, it is not to be overlooked that these children are accustomed, by the exigencies of their religion, to kneel in the chapel for no less than an hour and a half every day. Under such circumstances the cuticle covering the knee is likely to become thickened and rough, and dirt then very speedily assumes, as we all know, the appearance of being of old-standing and ingrained. [In the course of my enquiry, I asked Dr. Sweeting, to whose evidence particular importance must attach, if he would inspect for himself Nazareth House and its inmates, feeling sure that the Reverend Mother would offer no objection, and if he would then tell me, for the purposes of this report, the inferences he would draw from his observations on the 22nd February. This he consented to do, and his opinion he requested me to quote in the following words: “ Having inspected the children of “ Nazareth House, and the arrangements made for their accommodation and manage- “ ment, I am prepared to admit that the conditions I observed in the patients sent to “ me on the 22nd of February might be due to some temporary abatement of care, “ and not to habitual neglectand he wishes me to add, although this does not apply to the subject now under consideration, “ I was misled by the verbal information of the “ Medical Officer of Health for Fulham as to ventilation, and I am of opinion that the “ alleged overcrowding is incompatible with the structure and arrangements of the “ Institution.”] Having reached this stage, the question arises, “ Is there safe ground for supposing “ that the children for a short time prior to their removal to the hospital on the “ 22nd of February were under other t£an their ordinary management? ”—In answer, the history of the outbreak of fever may be recalled. The conditions under which they were living at this time were, indeed, altogether different from those of their ordinary mode of life. On the 6th or 7th of February the medical attendant’s measures of quarantine were applied. The care of three of the four sisters most accustomed to the class-room children was withdrawn from those (to the number of about 53) who remained healthy, their places being supplied by the remaining sister and a nurse inmate; and a week after, this sister falling ill of the fever, the services of one of less experience had to be substituted. During this time, moreover, school had been broken up; the children were confined to one part of the building, with occasional visits to the playground, their meals being taken in the class-room. So far as I can learn, the children highly appreciated this state of things; but, although it apparently lent itself to much boisterous merriment, it could not have been conducive to good management and tidiness. [It should here be said that Dr. Sweeting, when he visited the house and formed his last opinion, was not acquainted with the above facts as to the exceptional conditions under which the children were living previous to their removal to the hospital; although he knew, of course, of the illness of the Sisters.] Mr. Alderton considered it an object of his measures of isolation that as few adult attendants as possible should remain with the class-room children, whether the healthy, the sick, or the convalescents, so that the attendants, like the children, should be isolated. The exclusion of all persons other than those absolutely required from an infected room is, of course, a proper plan; but here I think exclusion was probably carried to some extreme. I do not think from the evidence that the children suffered, except in the matter of what may be called general tidiness ; and, in fact, the measures proved, as after-events showed, successful in stopping the disease with them. But it is a notable fact that at this time the Sisters in attendance commenced to suffer severely ; and that, when attacked, they were, to use Dr. Mahomed’s expression, “ desperately ill.” Fatigue is a potent pre-disposing influence in typhus, and the Sisters who were left to look after the healthy children and to nurse the sick were probably over-worked. Mr. Alderton himself told me of one, afterwards attacked, who fell on the floor in a swoon whilst bathing one of the fever-stricken children—one of those afterwards removed to the hospital. I pass now to the report of my own investigation into the sanitary condition and management of Nazareth House. II-—The Sanitary Circumstances of Nazareth House. Structural Arrangements of the Building and permanent Sanitary Provisions.—The building is a large four-storied one, standing on a site of more than two acres in extent, and in a fairly open situation. The central block and wings were erected at](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30557112_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
