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38
Medical Officers of Health Annual Report.
Scarlet Fever.
The number of cases notified, 221, shows a
rise on the previous year when there were
only 169. The cases were not so numerous as in
1893, when 303 were notified, and these years may be
compared with each other as both were epidemic years
separated by the usual interval. The deaths were six,
two at the hospitals and four at their homes.

The maximum was reached in October as has usually
been noticed. There is not so marked a difference between
the number in August and that in July as is generally
found.
The number removed to hospital was 127, or 57*4
per cent, compared with 47'3 per ceut. in 1895.
The prevention of the spread of Scarlet Fever is made
much more difficult o wing to the very mild type of the
disease that has been prevalent. It has frequently occurred
that children have been discovered in a peeling condition
in whom the feverish stage had been very short and had
not been noticed by the mother. In other instances it
has seemed very probable that the illness has been concealed
wilfully, the parents knowing what was the matter.
One instance occurred in a court in Clapham, where information
was given me by neighbonrs, and on visiting the
house I found a child in the highly infectious or peeling
sta^c. I was informed that the mother had stated to a
O
neighbour that she would not have a doctor because then
the other children would be stopped from going to school,