New Britain herald., 1917-05-11

which was not seen by any doctor. and was supposed to be chicken pox, and the case of so-called chicken pox'
 was traced directly to . case from
 Waterbury which was admitted to the hospital in that city two days after being in the family here.
 We put the lid on' these cases 70 tight that not another case ever de- veloped from them. We know this 50 positively that we are ready at any time to donate $100 to any charity in town. if any one will produce any evidence that will connect these cases with those eaoacuFxipasssn Barfln. Re- ports that the cases in Berlin street, all or any of them. originated in Kensington are absolutely untrue. About March IS, (we have never been able to fix the exact date), a child from one of the Berlin schools, re- siding in that section was sent home because tho child said, in reply to the query of the teacher. as to the absence of brother. that .ae Is sick with chicken pox.' Subsequent inquiry elicfted the fact that several children in this vicinity and one or more adults had had the same form of Chicken pox,' but none of them had DoSAA ACQOIt0U IO tu0 HSAlIu OE1C0T,
 One of these children sat in school next to a boy who had. two weeks later, breaking out on his face and method of guessing at it' as chicken pox. and was not reported.
 "A second boy coming in direct con. tact with this boy also had . rash which was not reported, and still an- other boy in contact with the prev ious ones, developed an eruption suf- ficient to call tho attention of phy- sician, who saw 1t once or twice and reported that the case had entirely cleared up, and the boy was we'll. In three families where such cases oc- cured, cases so mild and SO entirely lacking in all the usual symptoms of smallpox that no physician not an, expert in the disease could be at all blamed for not dinerentiating it from chickenpox. real smallpox developed in the usual time for exposure.
 From the time the first recognized cases were reported to the health of- f1cer. up to the present time, every suspicious case has been carefully in- vestigated and kept under close ob- servation and quarantine, either by daily observation and verbal instruc- ton, or by card and watch, till . posi- tive diagnosis has been made. In the course of these Investigations 1t de- veloped that some ckses of supposed chickenpox had been concealed and not reported for fear of quarantine, and in other cases l was able to un- cover cases of the real disease in ac- tive form: which had not been sus- pected.
 "A number of cases have come to the attention of the health ofacer af- ter they were entirely well, but 70
 mild had been the attack that when
 they were seen 1t was imposaiblA to know more than that they had had something. and when these cases were. vaccinated and did not take it was presunaable that they were mild srnali- pox. The same condition has existed all over the state.
 ''Now I. as health onlcer do not need to be told that am alone re- sponibie for the supervision and con- tro1 of these cases, and for the regu-
 lation and care of the sanitary condi-
 tions in town. The selectmen are not responsible and it Is neither right nor fair to blame them.
 Primarily no ono is at fault but the public itself. Tho author Of the letter we refer to is responsible as an employer of help and labor, in that he kept in his employ people who were not vacctna4ed. The school board are responsible to the extent that they have neglected for so 1ong to insist that the children in school should be vaccina1ed. Uvory parent with un-