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36 Medical Officers of Health Annual Report.

Small Pox. Again no case has been notified during the
year. There has been no Small Pox in the
sub-district since 1895, the one notified in 1896 having
ultimately proved not to have been rightly diagnosed.
Scarlet Fever The most striking fact as to the Scarlet
Fecer of 1898 was its extreme mildness of
type. Though 155 cases were notified, there was only
one death. It is quite clear that Scarlet Fever has
undergone a very great alteration as regards severity in
recent years, so much so as to have lost much of its
terror. Whether this can be ascribed in any way to
increased care given to its isolation, or improved methods
of treatment is more than doubtful, but it certainly
makes it of less importance to the sanitarian. Of course
there can be no certainty that the type may not again
change for the worse, so that no relaxation of effort to
control its spread is admissible. The change in fatality
is illustrated by the fact that in 1890, 5.9 per cent, of
those attacked died, and in 1892, the year of greatest
prevalence, 4.6 per cent., while last year only 0.6 per
cent. of the cases were fatal. There were, last year, 93