by J Ann Lewis
Mr James Ricketts was Superintendant of the Hospital for several years; he was given a Rechabite funeral after his death in August 1899. The Independent Order of Rechabites, also known as the Sons and Daughters of Rechab, is a fraternal organisation and friendly society founded in England in 1835 as part of the wider temperance movement to promote total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. His wife Mary Ann then had charge of the hospital until her death a few months later. Their gravestone lies in Pant Cemetery.
During another outbreak of Typhoid Fever in September 1900, it was felt that the infection might have come from the common food supply, such as milk, or dust carried in the atmosphere from one infected district into another. The bacteria would grow on potato peelings, in water containing small quantities of animal matter, in urine and other excreta. When we remember that in many districts, the common method of disposing of urine slops was into the gutter, it is easy to understand how the disease spread, and it did indeed frequently spread down the street in the direction of slop water. The children playing in polluted puddles that collected in bad and broken surfaces were soon infected, and this would cause the spread of the disease.
There was also much debate as to who should care for the families of men stricken with Smallpox or the like; the committee deciding that poor families should be given 8s per week relief rather than make them paupers and admit them to the Workhouse.
In 1902, one patient suffering from Smallpox slipped away from the hospital and was found talking to several children; the parents were justifiably upset and sent a letter of complaint to the Committee. On another occasion, during their convalescence, two male patients also slipped away and visited the local public house, and on returning to the hospital, broke several windows and some furniture. In due course they were fined for the damage and for exposing themselves whilst suffering from an infectious disease.
I was fascinated to read that in 1906, my grandmother was fined 5s for allowing my father, aged three years old at the time, to sit on the front doorstep of their home in Lower Elizabeth Street, Dowlais whilst suffering from Scarlet Fever.
In October 1902, one man suffering from Smallpox walked from his home in the High Street, Dowlais to the Penydarren Surgery, and came into contact with at least 50 people; this caused great concern as many children had yet to be vaccinated. Another man had tramped all the way from Glasgow looking for work, only to arrive in Merthyr destitute, and dying just 20 days later from Typhus Fever which he had contracted on the journey.
Over time, the residents of Pant and Dowlais became increasing distraught that patients in the hospital were able to receive parcels and converse with outsiders over the wall, and were also seen receiving ice cream from the local ice cream vendors. They were also worried about the precautions undertaken by the nurses and other staff for disinfecting themselves on leaving the hospital.
During the 1902 Smallpox outbreak, at least 13 patients were nursed at the hospital. A petition, signed by 640 people, was presented to the council asking that a temporary hospital be erected away the area and the building be removed. In the meanwhile, Pant School was to be closed while patients were nursed there. It is hard to understand why a school was built so near a fever hospital, and, so fearful were people that some carried Camphor tablets in a little bag around their neck to ‘ward off’ the infection when passing the hospital.
When the new Mardy Central Fever Hospital was officially opened in 1907 (a temporary iron structure having been constructed on the Mardy Estate for nursing Smallpox patients a few years earlier), the Pant Fever Hospital was no longer required, much to the relief of the people of Pant and Dowlais. The hospital was destroyed by fire, as planned by the committee, on 24 August 1907.
