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171
[1911
OTHER NOTIFIABLE DISEASES.
Under this heading are included (a) Pulmonary Tuberculosis, (b) Plague,
(c) Cholera, (d) Acute Poliomyelitis, (e) Cerebro-Spinal Fever, (f) Ophthalmia
Neonatorum.
Before proceeding to discuss such cases of these diseases as occurred in
Islington, it might be well to place before the Council a short review of the history
of the notification of the infectious diseases. This has been briefly and clearly
done in a letter addressed to the President of the Local Government Board by
the Medical Officer to that Board, and printed in the "Statistics of the
incidence of notifiable infectious diseases in each sanitary district in England
and Wales in the year 1911."
"Soon after the establishment of registration of deaths in the year 1837,
it became evident that, although the information thus furnished gave valuable
indications as to the directions in which sanitary amelioration was particularly
required, it did not completely meet the needs of the case. Mortality statistics
necessarily ignore everything that precedes the close of life, and, owing to the
varying fatility of the disease, sickness is not always in the same ratio as
mortality. An epidemic may have secured a strong foothold before a fatal
case occurs; and from an economic standpoint it is necessary to ascertain the
amount and duration of sickness as well as the mortality in a community; just
as during warfare, in estimating the fighting force of an army, a list of those
disabled by disease or wounds is needed as well as a list of the killed.
"Many attempts have been made by private persons and voluntary societies
to secure the registration of various forms of sickness. Among the names
specially to be held in honour in connection with projects for the registration
of both non-infectious and infectious diseases are those of W. H. Rumsey,
B. W. Richardson, and A. Ransome. The returns organised in the year 1857,
by the Metropolitan Association of Health Officers, may be specially mentioned,
as they secured the co-operation of a Government Department. This
Association collected returns as to sickness of all kinds attended at the public
expense, in hospitals and dispensaries, and by Poor Law Medical Officers, which
had been voluntarily and gratuitously contributed by medical officers in charge
of the above classes of patients; and for nearly two years the General Board
of Health, whose duties were shortly taken over by the Privy Council, printed
and distributed, in the form of weekly and quarterly returns, the contributed
statistics as to sickness and as to meteorological conditions.