HC Deb 25 July 1878 vol 242 cc223-4
DR. CAMERON

asked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether his attention has been called to statements in the "Herts and Essex Observer" of July 13th and 20th, according to which a man named Carter, since dead of small pox, was allowed, while prostrated by that disease, to lie from half-past seven in the morning till five in the afternoon of the 11th July, in the public highway near Hadham Cross; whether it is a fact, as stated by Mr. Garrett, that a number of children were allowed to congregate round the patient; and, whether he will order an investigation to be instituted into the case, and, meanwhile, direct that the children, and others exposed to the infection should be placed under observation, and steps taken, as far as pos- sible, to prevent the spread of the disease?

MR. SCLATER-BOOTH,

in reply, said, he had inquired into this case, and the result was that he been informed by the sanitary authority that on the morning of the 10th the man Carter, feeling unwell, applied to the medical officer of the district, who saw him, and had no reason to suppose that anything serious was the matter with him. The following morning, however, the man fell down on the roadside, and was allowed to remain there a very long time, as some time was necessarily lost in procuring an ambulance from the workhouse, which was four miles distant, and as, unfortunately, the people in the neighbourhood were unwilling to lend a vehicle for his removal. The Union officers provided suitable covering for him, and supplied him with tea and brandy, before removing him to the workhouse. It was true that while the man lay by the roadside a number of children congregated around him; but as it was not known who they were or whence they came, it was impossible to have them placed under observation to prevent, so far as they were concerned, the spread of the disease. The Guardians had, however, taken the necessary steps to have the house where the man lived, and its furniture, disinfected. Under these circumstances, he did not think that any further investigation was necessary.