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9
stand that there can be any danger to others when their own
children appear quite well. For this reason and others connected
with the circumstances of the poor, there is a great deal of exposure
of infected children during the period of desquamation, or
peeling of the skin. Measures have been taken to make it
generally known that such exposure is both dangerous—to the
individual and to the community—and unlawful, and that proceedings
will be taken under the Sanitary Act, 1866, for the
repression of the practice in any and every well authenticated
case. Due notice having been given that the provisions of the
Act, would be strictly enforced against all offenders, and it having
come to my knowledge that one of the most important clauses
had been violated (viz., 38, which prohibits the exposure of sick
persons in public vehicles without proper precaution against the
spread of infection), I took proceedings against the offender, a
gentleman from the country, and obtained a conviction : a fine
of £3 10s. Od. being inflicted in addition to £1 10s. Od. costs.
Whooping Cough was considerably more fatal than usual (72):
the deaths from the various forms of specific Fever were about the
same as in 1870 (48). It cannot be too widely known that
Hospitals have been provided by the Metropolitan Sick Asylum
Board, under the " Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867," for the reception
of cases of Specific Fever, including Scarlet Fever, but not
including Measles. These maladies are always with us; and
though it will be impossible, perhaps, to bring the general public
to realize the fact, they are of far greater importance in the long
run than such diseases as Small Pox or Cholera. Therefore, it is
to be hoped that those who are in authority, and Poor-Law
Guardians especially, will instruct their officers to spare no efforts
to effect the removal of poor Fever cases to the Hospitals in question—than
which I can conceive no greater boon to the sick poor
and their friends ; or any better security for the health and safety
of the general public.
Diarrhoea. The fatality of this complaint is greatest at the
extremes of life, in this respect resembling the class of Chest complaints
; but, unlike those diseases, it prevails almost exclusively as
a factor of death in hot weather. Thus, of 129 deaths ascribed to
this cause, omitting 2 cases described as Dysentery, no fewer than
109 occurred in children under two years of age (92 being less
than a year old), and 16 in persons sixty years of age and upwards ;
the deaths at all intermediate ages being only 4. Of the 129
deaths 7 took place in the first quarter of the year, 7 in the second,
105 in the third, and 10 in the fourth. Without underrating
other causes which operate in hot weather, I believe that a principal
cause of the greater prevalence and fatality of Diarrhoea in summer
is bad food—especially sour milk in the case of infants. With a
high temperature it is difficult to preserve milk sweet for any
length of time ; and among the poor, who probably do not get the