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117
[1910

DIPHTHERIA.
Diphtheria, which includes Membranous Croup, was notified in 471
instances, as compared with a corrected average of 538 in the preceding 10
years, and the cases were equal to an attack-rate of 1.44 per 1,000 of the
population, as against a mean rate of 1.64 in the 10 years mentioned.
Although the return was below the corrected average, it has been better
on five occasions during the last 10 years, viz.:—in 1903, when 455 cases were
notified; in 1904, when there were 347; in 1905, when there were 351; in
1906, when there were 439; and in 1909, when there were 430.
Since 1891 there has been a tendency for this disease to decrease, for
when the twenty years that have elapsed are split up into quinquennial periods,
it is found that there were 3,828 cases notified from 1891 to 1895; 3,702 from
1896 to 1900; 2,942 from 1901-1905; and 2,351 from 1906-1910. Such a
state of affairs is exceedingly satisfactory with regard to a disease about
which a popular American author* wrote as follows:—" Scarcely more than a
" decade ago, as the mother sat by the cradle of her first-born, musing over
"his future, one moment fearfully reckoning the gauntlet of risks that his
tiny life had to run, and the next building rosy air-castles of his happiness
" Hutchinson. "Preventable Diseases," p. 222.