11 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



included Netten Eadcliffe and Ballard, Sir John Simon has pithily stated the 

 aim and objects in the following words : " I believe we had the credit ot 

 earnestly endeavouring to learn the truth, and tell the truth, as to the matters 

 which our enquiries regarded." 



In the course of 16 years' service as Medical Inspector Power carried 

 through an immense amount of more or less routine work, including enquiries 

 into the sanitary circumstances and administration of various urban and rural 

 districts. In addition he investigated and reported on a number of outbreaks 

 of infectious diseases, more particularly small-pox, diphtheria, and scarlet 

 fever, as to which some brief account must be given in view of the importance 

 of the discoveries made, and of their bearing on epidemiology and preventive 

 medicine. 



For instance, while investigating the incidence of small-pox in the area 

 surrounding the Fulham Hospital in 1881 and subsequently in 1884-1885, 

 Power found that admission of cases of this disease into the hospital at certain 

 periods was followed after regular intervals of time by the occurrence of eases 

 of small-pox in the surrounding district. He demonstrated, nioreo-\"er, the 

 fact that if a circular area extending outwards from the hospital as a centre, 

 to a distance of a mile, was divided into zones drawn upon the map having 

 radii of |-, |, |, and 1 mile respectively, and an enumeration of all the 

 houses in each zone were made and also of all houses invaded by small-pox, 

 the percentage of invaded houses in each zone diminished as the distance from 

 the hospital increased and, further, that this relation held good in each 

 quadrant of each zone. "Within the quarter-mile zone there was but one 

 approach to the hospital, this being in the north-west quadrant. This being 

 so, the distribution of the cases showing exceptionally heavy incidence in the 

 south-west quarter-mile quadrant was not such as to suggest any relationship 

 to lines of traffic or ambulance routes. Studying the observed phenomena 

 more closely, Power concluded that diffusion of small-pox only occurred 

 subsequent to the aggregation of acute cases in the hospital, and probably 

 also only during prevalence of certain atmospheric conditions, the effect of 

 which, however, seemed to vary somewhat from one season to another. 



Finally he directed attention to the fact that statistics of small-pox 

 incidence in the registration districts of London during the years 1876 to 

 1885 afforded demonstration that the local distribution and intensity of 

 small-pox during the epidemics which had occurred during that period had 

 been definitely influenced by the proximity or otherwise of the London small- 

 pox hospitals. He pointed out, moreover, that such relationship tended to 

 become specially marked in the event of any new hospital situated in a 

 district up to that time comparatively free from small-pox having to be 

 opened for the reception of acute cases of the disease. This now classical 

 exposition of the danger to the public health incidental to the aggregation of 

 cases of spaall-pox formed the basis of legislative action which resulted in the 

 removal of small- pox hospitals out of the Metropolitan area. 



Power was the first to direct attention (in 1878) to the possibility of tlie 



