View report page

Over 60 per cent. of the children have had measles before their
first inspection at five years old, and the percentage gradually increases
until at thirteen years old well over 90 per cent. of the children have had
the disease.
Whooping cough is not so prevalent as measles. About half the
children have it before their first inspection, but only an extra ten per
cent. have it. during their school life. Scarlet Fever is mainly a disease
of children of school age. Between four and five per cent. only have had it
before their first inspection, while at thirteen years of age, the percentage
has increased to 17.7 for boys and 20.6 for girls. There is rather a
marked difference in the two sexes at the latter age, but, taking all ages
together, there is no significant difference between boys and girls. In
whooping cough only, in this year, as in former years, there is a slight
but significant difference between the two sexes, girls being more liable
to the disease than boys.
As regards other previous illnesses, eight boys and one girl had
had small pox. All of these were over ten years of age, and contracted
the disease in the epidemic about ten years ago. Reckoned on the number
of children for whom a previous history could be obtained for this age
and over, the percentage who had had small pox was 0.77. Only four
children had had enteric fever, two boys and two girls, the percentage
being 0.17. Twenty children, ten boys and ten girls, had had chorea, the
percentage being 0.84. Five boys and eleven girls had had rheumatic
fever or rheumatism, the percentage for boys being 0.41, and for girls
0.98. These percentages are based, not on the number of children
examined, but on the number respecting whom a family history was
obtained.