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21
Puerperal Fever. 4 notifications were received; of the patients
3 died. All the circumstances were carefully inquired into and the
rules of the Central Midwives Board rigorously enforced.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum. This disease occurred in 28 infants, all
of whom were visited by the Health Visitors and promptly placed
under treatment, with the result that in only 1 case did the disease lead
to any impairment of vision.
Epidemic Cerebro Spinal Meningitis. 5 cases of this complaint
were received, of which 2 were fatal.

Under this heading are included deaths registered as due to
epidemic diarrhoea, epidemic enteritis, infective enteritis, zymotic
enteritis, summer diarrhoea, dysentery and dysenteric diarrhoea,
choleraic diarrhoea, cholera (other than Asiatic or epidemic) and
cholera nostras.
Under the heading of “Enteritis” are included deaths registered
as due to enteritis, muco-enteritis, gastro-enteritis, gastric catarrh, and
gastro-intestinal catarrh. Gastritis is a separate disease.
These diseases were the cause of 58 deaths during 1916 compared
with 116 for 1915. Of this number 50 were of children under
five years of age, 49 of these being under two years of age.
The death rate was 0'53 per 1,000 at all ages, and 0'44 for infants
under two years of age.
The older statistics do not give an accurate comparison with
1911-1916, because the heading of Diarrhoea did not, before these dates,
include the names mentioned above, but simply cases registered as
epidemic or summer diarrhoea, or epidemic, zymotic or infective enteritis.
It is usual now to consider the infantile mortality in this case as
being for all children under two years of age.