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Public Offices,
En'field,
January Hth, 1909.
To the Chairman and Members of the Enfield, Urban District Council.
Gentlemen,
I beg to report to you as follows in regard to the outbreak of
Diphtheria which took place in the district of Enfield in the latter
part of the year just come to an end.
It occurs to me that it would be well in the first instance to give
a short resume of the Diphtheria history of Enfield for the last 21
years ; so that you may be in a better position to appreciate the
conditions obtaining in Enfield prior to the outbreak.
It will, no doubt, be well known to you that an epidemic of
Diphtheria visited Enfield in the autumn of 1887, and ran from
September to the following January, during which time 213 cases
were reported, with 48 deaths; but from the fact that the Infectious
Diseases Notification Act was not then in force it is not unreasonable
to suppose that this number did not by any means represent the
actual number of cases. Your late Medical Officer of Health (Dr. J.
J. Ridge), was of opinion that this epidemic was mainly due to milk,
and secondarily to school infection, and with this opinion Dr. BruceLow,
the Local Government Board Inspector, agreed.
In 1889. 6 deaths were certified as due to Diohtheria.