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56
Such comparisons must be made very guardedly as they present numerous
pitfalls. The principal epidemic diseases cannot be much relied upon, because
thev embrace also the diarrhoea and whooping cough of infants and the typhoid
fever of adults, and are not confined to the diseases principally affecting schoolchildren,
or likely to be spread by such children. Measles is a disease the
maximum mortality of which is in the second year of life, the maximum morbidity
or attack-rate is in the third year, and the maximum incidence of which
extends from the second to the fifth year, and the number of children attending
the oleansing station below five years of age are few. With the morbidities of
Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever the possibilities of forming a better judgment
are greater, as both of these diseases are prevalent throughout school-age.
In examining this table in detail it should be borne in mind that it was in
1904 that the Children's Cleansing Stations were established in St. Pancras
and St. Marylebone, so that the table shows the position of the Boroughs
during the three years before that year and four years afterwards. Whether
it be a coincidence or not, it is an extraordinary fact that each of the Boroughs
shows a remarkable improvement in its position in regard to the prevalence
of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria after the establishment of the Children's
Cleansing Stations.