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the exception as to secondary cases should apply only to notification
by the medical practitioner. I must also again draw attention
to the necessity of providing hospital accommodation for the
children of the poor when suffering from Measles —not so much
on the ground of the necessity for isolation, but for the sake of the
welfare of the patients, as a large proportion of those who succumb
to the disease who would be saved if they could be removed from
the unfavourable conditions by which they are surrounded and
treated in a rational manner.
Whooping Cough.
54 deaths were ascribed to this disease, being 17 below the
average for the last 7 years, allowing for the increase of the
population. The death-rate was 041 and that of the County
of London 0.44.
Diarrhoea.
Under the heading Diarrhoea are included several different
affections, confounded with one another on account of the presence
of Diarrhoea as a symptom, but there is no doubt that Summer
Diarrhoea, which is so fatal to infants, is essentially a specific
disease.
In previous reports mention has been made of the want of
uniformity in the classification of deaths from Diarrhoea, owing to
the various names used in death certificates in respect of deaths
due to epidemic Diarrhoea and the consequent invalidation of
comparative statistics dealing with the diarrhœal and zymotic
death-rates.
A circular letter was sent last year to all medical practitioners
residing in Fulham, drawing their attention to the fact that the
Royal College of Physicians had, consequent upon representations
made by the Society of Medical Officers of Health, sanctioned the
use of the terms Epidemic Enteritis or Zymotic Enteritis as a
synonym for Epidemic Diarrhoea, the latter being the title
authorised by the " Nomenclature of Diseases " and recommended
the entire disuse as synonyms of Epidemic Diarrhoea of such
terms as Gastro-Enteritis, Muco-Enteritis or Gastric Catarrh,