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being nearly up to its maximum accommodation, which is
for boys 290, girls and infants 252 each, or a total of 794
scholars. The drains of the school had been recently reconstructed,
new water closets and flushing cisterns provided,
and the general class rooms, etc., were found to be in cleanly
condition, and fairly well ventilated. The whole of the houses
in which the cases had occurred were visited, and it was
found that there were no insanitary conditions to account for the
cases, and further, that there was no cause for alarm, seeing that
twelve streets were affected, giving an average of two cases per
street for the three months under report.
Diphtheria
and
Membranous
Croup.
Diphtheria and Membranous Croup were notified
in six hundred and fourteen cases. They are grouped
together as it is impossible to distinguish them practically.
Two hundred and fifty-nine cases were removed to
hospital, many in a dying condition, for the sake of having
tracheotomy performed as a last resort. Fifty-six of these
latter cases died, giving a hospital mortality of just under
twenty-two per cent. Of the cases treated at home three
hundred and fifty-five in number, fifty-two died equal to 14.6
per cent. This disease appears to have become endemic in the
Metropolis.
During those periods of and the year in which difficulty has
occurred in the prompt removal of cases to hospital, owing to
insufficient accommodation, the Metropolitan Asylums Board
has issued orders to the medical attendants enabling them, if
they desire it, to obtain anti-toxin from any of the Board's
ambulance stations for the purpose of treating patients therewith.
Hospital
Provision
for
Scarlet
Fever
and
Diphtheria
At the end of July and early in August difficulty
was occasionally experienced in obtaining hospital
accommodation for Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria
patients, and continued throughout September,
October and November. In many cases the patients