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14
including much of the information in last year's table, treats the subject from a
somewhat different viewpoint, and, in addition to classifying the cases into juvenile
and adult groups, indicates the year of onset and differentiates between the sexes.
It refers to 528 cases in which it has been possible to obtain sufficiently up-to-date
reports on which to draw conclusions as to the present condition of the patients.
Many other cases have come under observation during the period covered, i.e.,
1925-27, but owing to death, to the want of recent reports, or to their having moved
or otherwise been lost sight of, it is not possible to include them in the analysis.
The cases which first came under observation during 1927 either by notification or
otherwise are not included, as it is now fully realised that some time must elapse
before any statement as to recovery or otherwise is of any value. A variable interval
frequently intervenes between the acute attack and the onset of the sequelae,
characterised by more or less normal health, and this has accounted for the seeming
paradox that cases reported to have completely recovered have later developed the
well-known and distressing after-effects.
The table on page 15 contains a good deal of hitherto unpublished information
which, but for want of space, would justify considerable comment. Readers, however,
may draw their own conclusions. With regard to the figures in brackets in
the fourth column of each section, which denote the number of patients admitted to
mental hospitals or correctional institutions such as reformatory and industrial
schools, etc., it may be mentioned that 76 cases (46 males and 28 females) have been
treated at West Park Mental Hospital and 28 (23 males and 5 females) at the Manor
Mental Hospital, Epsom.
Influenza. The deaths from influenza during 1927 numbered 1,815, as compared with 806
in 1926. Influenza had assumed epidemic form in most parts of Europe at the
beginning of the year, and in London the mortality reached a maximum towards
the end of January, the deaths in the last week of that month numbering 252. As
in previous epidemics, the deaths from pneumonia, bronchitis and other respiratory
diseases, as well as from diseases of the heart, increased considerably during the
epidemic. The mortality at ages over 75 was considerably higher, relatively, than
in the epidemic of 1922.
Tuberculosis.

The number of notifications of tuberculosis received in London boroughs during
1927 (52 weeks), after correction of the figures within each metropolitan borough
by the exclusion of cases notified as primary but subsequently found to have been
previously notified, was 8,777. The cases of pulmonary tuberculosis numbered