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Measles, and in the poorer districts the parents are too often
unable, however good their intentions may be, to secure proper
accommodation and attention for their sick children. Hospital
accommodation for Measles would be a great boon to the poor,
and even a small hospital to which children could be removed
from exceptionally insanitary and over-crowded houses would
be productive of much good. Such a hospital would serve
as an object-lesson, showing the importance of the disease and
the extent to which its fatality can be reduced by proper
treatment.
In the early part of the year, a leaflet describing the first
symptoms of Measles, and setting out the chief precautions to
be observed against the spread of the disease, was distributed
house-to-house in the parts of the Borough mainly affected.
A copy was also sent to any house known to contain a case of
measles.
Whooping Cough.
Whooping Cough caused 63 deaths during the year, or
24 less than the decennial average. The deaths were
equivalent to a death-rate of *3 per 1,000, or -a lower than the
mean death-rate for the preceding ten years, which was 5.
The death-rate in the County of London was 4.
The death-rate in the sub-districts was as follows :—
East Battersea, .27, North-West Battersea, '56, South-West
Battersea, .30.

Whooping Cough in 1902 caused more deaths than any
of the notifiable diseases, but its fatality was distinctly less
than in the previous year. Like Measles, Whooping Cough
is fatal chiefly from pulmonary complications, which could in
a large measure be guarded against by proper care and
attention. Like Measles also, Whooping Cough too often
leaves the respiratory organs so seriously impaired that they