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45
In a special report, Dr. Sidney Davies gives account of the results obtained by the voluntary
notification of diarrhoea among infants in Woolwich in the months of July, August and September
of the years 1905-8. During this period 844 cases were notified, and of these 115 died, or nearly 14
per cent. The fatality was much greater among infants under three months of age, viz. 29 per cent., and
diminished with increase of age. The fatality, moreover, was found to vary with prevalence, the disease
being most fatal at the time of greatest] prevalence. Mortality from this disease, moreover, varied
with temperature of the earth three feet below the surface. Diarrhoea prevalence appears to be determined
by the rise of the earth temperature curve above a certain level, and, this prevalence once established,
appears to continue irrespective of whether the temperature is subsequently maintained. In houses
to which attention was directed by the notification of diarrhoea in an infant, older persons were found'
also to be affected. An examination of the statistics obtained in the inquiry showed that while infants
who were breast-fed suffered much less than those artificially fed, there was not much difference between
the incidence of attack on children fed on cow's milk and those fed on condensed milk, except among
the children fed on cow's milk at the Infants' Milk Depot, who suffered much less than other infants
artificially fed. Dr. Davies says that there can be little doubt that the infection spreads from person to
person in a family, and he thinks the distribution of the cases is consistent with the hypothesis that the
disease is conveyed by flies. The dates of cases pointed to an incubation period of from two to seven
days. As compared with London, the death-rate was slightly higher in Woolwich in the four years
1901-4, but much lower in the four years 1905-8, a result which Dr. Davies thinks is largely due to the
steps which were able to be taken as the result of notification and also to the influence of the milk depot.
Dr. Davies recommends that the system of notification should be continued and that the period of
notification in each vear should extend from June to October, inclusive.
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Erysipelas.
The deaths from erysipelas in the Administrative County of London during 1908 (53 weeks)
numbered 160, as compared with 189 in 1907 (52 weeks).
The age-distribution of these deaths was as follows:—

The number of cases notified and the number of deaths registered from this disease since 1890
have been as follows—

The number of cases of erysipelas notified and the case-rate for the year 1908, together with the
case-rate in the decennium 1898-1907, in the several sanitary areas are shown in the following table :—
1 See footnote (1), page 37,
21322 G