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39
Measles and whooping-cough continue to exact a toll of suffering
and death which is now but little less than in former years; but they
offer very special difficulties of control, and the circumstances favouring
their spread have multiplied enormously during recent years. The
opportunities afforded by the aggregation in school classrooms for the
spread of infectious disease among those of the most susceptible ageperiods,
and the overcrowding in our large urban communities, are
mainly responsible for the fact that diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles,
and whooping-cough (all diseases which often remain unrecognised) are
as prevalent as they are. It seems that no powers or resources at
present possessed by sanitary authorities suffice to secure that large
measure of control that is necessary to check the spread of measles and
whooping-cough. It is a matter of supreme difficulty to ward off
attacks, but the future is sure to see a great reduction in mortality from
these diseases. That the mortality is largely preventable is shown by
the circumstance that it is always very largely borne by the poor. It is
a mortality due in no small measure to parental ignorance, and the
only remedy for that is the better education of the masses on subjects
of vital importance.