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7
Births.
The number of births registered in the district during the
year was 968, and as regards 9 of the births occurring in the
Edmonton Workhouse the mothers belonged to this district,
total 977, a very considerable increase over the total for 1894
(857). This, with estimated population as basis of calculation,
gives a birth rate of 32 237 per 1000.
The number of births registered in the two Workhouses is
given in Table " B."
Infectious Diseases.
The Notification Act is in force in the district. The following
table gives the number of cases of the different diseases
that were notified, a few cases were notified more than once,
owing to their having come under the care of more than one
medical practitioner, these are counted each as one case.
Scarlet Fever 162
Enteric Fever 30
Erysipelas 41
Puerperal Fever 4
Diphtheria 31
Smallpox 1
Total 269
Prosecutions under the Infectious Diseases (Notification)
Act.
On my advice the Council undertook two prosecutions
under this Act. The first was a case in which the prosecution
was instituted with a view to calling public attention to the
obligation of householders to notify under the Act, an obligation
of special importance when, as in this case, no medical practitioner
is in attendance, the great difficulty in these cases is to furnish
legal proof that the defendant was aware of the nature of the
disease, in this particular instance this was met by the fact that
a written communication had been made by the mother to the
Edmonton School Board inspector that the children were unable
to attend school because they were suffering from scarlet fever.