2020: DAY 22
WEEKLY REPORT
APR 8TH - 14TH
Register of Letters to the Colonial Secretary:
Letter from the Chief Medical Officer advising that Mrs H Whitehall, chief cook at the Coast Hospital, has died – though not from Bubonic Plague. The Justice Department advises that approval has been given to hear Lunacy cases at Darlinghurst instead of the City Police courts.
Extracts from the Minutes of the Board of Health
April 10: Suggestion from Mr F.T. Muston, MRCVS that description of the more usual plague symptoms should be made public. Response: "As medical practitioners are acquainted with symptoms, it was thought that nothing further was necessary”.
– Fumigation of Second Hand bags (which were sent to farmers)
– Sale of street sweepings by City Council.
– Removal of contacts to Quarantine Station
– Cable from British Consul at Alexandria, advising that Venice plague rules have been invoked in Egypt against ships from Sydney.
– Capitation fee for capture of rats. (suggestion that Govt should set fee of 2d) - to be administered by Mayors of Local Govt.
–Quarantined Area, Wexford St - rejection of Govt proposal that those made homeless by destruction of houses unfit for habitation should be sent to Quarantine Station for shelter. Buck passed to another dept.
April 12: Yersin's plague serum – sent from Paris - on its way
– Shark Island as Plague Hospital suggestion
– Sugar from Mauritius for Cootamundra.
– Temporary public washhouse, Quarantined Area. - need to provide such in areas like Wexford St was raised. Directed to Public Works.
– Rats on Cockatoo Island.
Register of Deaths
Between April 8th and April 14th, there are 13 deaths from Bubonic Plague: 10 men, 1 woman and 2 children, a 3 and half year old boy and an 11 year old boy – 5 more than the previous week.
Shed at corner of Napoleon St, interior, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW