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1910] 162
Whooping Cough.— This disease also showed an increase, for there
were 892 cases notified, as contrasted with 708 in the preceding year, and an
average of 545 in the ten preceding years.
Other Diseases.—These diseases include Mumps and various skin
diseases of an infectious character, and were responsible for 2,006 notifications,
as contrasted with 1,739 in the preceding year, and with a decennial average
of 1,095.
A study of the last column of the succeeding Table will show that since
1904 there has been a considerable increase in the number of other diseases
notified by the school teachers, and of course there has been a corresponding
increase in the amount of work devolving on the Sanitary Inspectors, for each
case must be inquired into, however briefly. Such a large increase in the work
must necessarily derange the general work of the Public Health Department,
and, indeed, it is not too much to say that this derangement would have been
very serious indeed had not the sanitary staff put their backs into the work
and endeavoured to do their utmost to meet the difficulties of the position.
There is no question that owing to the notification of births and tuberculosis,
together with the largely increased notification of the non-notifiable infectious
diseases by the school teachers, a position has arisen which can only be met
by the appointment of trained women to do work which at present devolves
on the Sanitary Inspectors, and which would be more satisfactorily performed
by females.