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1911] 148
cent. These are very remarkable figures, for they very plainly indicate the
desire of the parents to utilise the hospitals, and to get good and cheap treatment
for their children. All except 110 cases were taken to the Metropolitan
Asylums Board's Hospitals.
Fatality.—As only 20 out of the 804 cases died, the fatality was 2.5 per cent.,
which is only 0.3 below the mean of the eighteen years 1893-1910. It was,
however, above that of the preceding four years. It is low enough, however,
to show that the risk of death from ajn attack of scarlet fever is now very small.
DIPHTHERIA.
To this disease, which includes Membranous Croup, were credited 593
cases, or 71 in excess of the average of the preceding ten years; and they
represented an attack-rate of 1.81 per 1,000 of the population as contrasted
with a rate of 1.60 in the ten years 1901-10. The rate in England and Wales
was 1 .32 per 1,000; in London 1.64; and in the country boroughs of England

During the greater pait of the year the notified cases in each week were,
as a rule, below the averages of the corresponding weeks of the preceding
ten years. At the beginning of September, however, they began to increase
rapidly, so that in its fourth week the curve, as shown in the Chart, reached
its highest point, being as many as 10 above the decennial average for that
week. Thence to the end of the year it was, with two exceptions, considerably
above the curve of the decennial period. No particular reason can be given
for the increase, unless, indeed, the unusually dry and warm autumn
caused it.