Waterbury Democrat., 1902-04-29
SMALLPOX BY WIND.

Some weeks ago I alluded in this column to the subject of infection of the Essex side of the Thames with smallpox, presumably derived from the hospital ships moored in that river. Dr J. c. Thresh, medical of ficer of health for Essex, in a paper published last week, shows that tnls idea rests on @ very solid basis, and gives statistics showing the very large number of smallpox cases which occur in the Orsett union that nearest the ships) as compared with the cases reported from other districts of the area over the sanitary districts over which pr Thresh presides. At the date, February l, some 200 cases of smallpox were notified as having occurred in the Orsett union. This
 area has population of 33,721. The remainder of the county of Essex,
 with population of TOO, had up to February 1, only suffered to the extent of 162 cases. Or, putting the
 matter satisfactorily, the eases in Or sett union represented a rate of S.6 per LOGO; those in the rest of Essex
 giving a rate of 0.21 per 1000 of pop | ulation. Purfeet is the nearest place
 to the ships in the union. and here the
 rate was S.8 per 1000. Elsewhere the numbers give about 2.4 per 1000.
 Clearly, on the principle of exclusion, we are left with the certainty that the presence of the hospital ships must be the only. conceivable cause of the great number of attacks occurring in their vicinity. Dr Thresh calculates that if London were affected in the proportion in which the Essex district
 under notice has been attacked, the
 cases would have numbered 5O0,O00
 during the seven months that are past.
 w. H. Power, as I pointed out in my former reference, showed over 20 years ago how smallpox cases oc-
 cured in greater numbers near to the
 Pullman hospital than further off.
 That the microbes of smallpox given
 off from the patients skin, among
 other sources, are liable to be borne l by the air and thus conveyed to in- i feet those unprotected by vaccination or others who may be susceptible to attack, is now an accepted dictum 1 of sanitary science. Dr Thresh in his paper has an interesting remark
 to the effect that while it is difficult 1 to fix, the exact distance to which smallpox germs may be carried by
 the air and yet be capable of infect
 ing those exposed to their influence,
 distance of two or possibly three
 miles may be regarded as the maxi
 mum limit This much Dr Thresh
 1nferS from the Essex experiences. the infection, I may add, having been
 found to bear a distinct relation to
 the prevailing winds. Grays lies l from three to four and half miles l from the ships, and Dr Thresh doubts 1 if the wind-borne germs extended so l far The influence of the air deter l iorateS their infective powers. and probably in short time kills them; ] but that they may play havoc among
 population within a four-mile ra-
 dius seems to be fair conclusion drawn from the facts. What the public naturally desires to know is if
 no means can be employed to limit the
 air-borne infection of smallpox. It
 would be interesting to hear the opin- ions of sanitarians on this point. I
 know that considerable success in
 preventing scarlet fever spread from
 the skin of patients has been attained i by the use of ordinary antiseptic oint-
 ments. Presumably there can be no
 objection to the use of these prepara- 1 tions ipy smallpox patients; but it
 may also be borne in mind that in-
 lection in smallpox is of very subtle l character and it would assuredly be ] impossible to arrest the outward pas
 sage of microbes from patients
 breath, for example.-London Chron-
 icle.