THE RUMOURED CASE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.

Kumara Times, Issue 2557, 2 September 1884, Page 2

THE RUMOURED CASE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.

The following is the Medical Officer's report to the Board of Health, handed to us for publication, on the case of reported or suspected chicken or smallpox : —• To the Chairman of Kumara Boakd of Health. Sir—ln accordance with your request I beg to report as follows re a case of reported or suspected small-pox. On the 20th August I was called to see Mrs Pfaff's child. It had a vesicular irruption such as we should call eczema on the body and limbs, while in some patches and especially about the scalp it had run into scabs containing thick purulent matter, when it would be termed pustular eczema or impetigo. I ordered appropriate treatment and on the 22nd saw the child again when it was better. The complaint was not an infectious one, and can hardly be called contagious, except by direct contact between persons of unclean habit. Its presence is sometimes

due to scrofula, and sometimes to the want of wholesome food and soap and water; and, in my experience, very rarely to anything else, except in a much milder extent, to dentition. The mother stated that some time before, another of her children had suffered in a similar way. There was an appearance of poverty about the premises, and the air of the bedroom was peculiarly close and unwholesome.

I have the honor to be, Sir Your obedient servant, F. A. Monckion, Medical Officer to the Board of Health, Kumara. Kumara, Ist September, 1884.