Leicester and smallpox: The Leicester method

Abstract

The first requirement for the development of the method was a hospital that would admit smallpox cases. Generally, smallpox and fever cases were singled out and excluded from hospitals, although occasionally local "pest-houses" or "houses of recovery" may have been provided.3 Before 1803 there was no provision for these cases in Leicester, but in that year the Leicester Infirmary (founded 1771) provided separate ward accommodation for fever cases occurring in existing in-patients. In 1820 the Infirmary opened a twenty-bed "House of Recovery from Contagious Fever" for cases referred by subscribers, mostly cases of typhus.4 Other accommodation was provided on a temporary basis -for example, the Board of Guardians converted the Bridewell into a hospital for paupers sick with fever -but no permanent provision was made until 1880.5