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12
Medical Officer's Report.
SCARLET FEVER.
Ninety-six cases were notified, and 81 of them were removed to
hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board or the London Fever Hospital.
This is the smallest number of notifications during the past four years.
The principal incidence of the disease was from the middle of September
to the middle of November.
An Italian woman was fined 40s. and costs for wilfully permitting the
exposure of her daughter in the streets while suffering from scarlet fever.
DIPHTHERIA.
The number of cases of diphtheria was 135, or 138, including 3 cases
of membranous croup. Last year the number was 158. Of these, 123 were
removed to hospitals for treatment, viz.:—
To the Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board 53
,, Children's Hospital 37
,, London Homoeopathic Hospital 25
„ other general hospitals not in the District 8
For five weeks, from the 20th August, there was a small outbreak, limited
to a small portion of the western part of the District, for, of 27 cases notified
in the whole District in this period, 23 occurred in the small portion west of
Lamb's Conduit Street, north of Theobald's Road, the northern boundary
being formed by East Street, Boswell Court, and Gage Street. Of the
remaining 4 cases, 2 occurred at houses near the small area just mentioned.
In many cases the transfer of infection from person to person could be traced.
Many of the children of the neighbourhood play together in the streets after
school hours.
With the exception of these five weeks, the cases were sparsely scattered
throughout the District, two or three cases sometimes occurring in the same
house.
The number of deaths from diphtheria was 21, or a mortality of 15.2
per cent.
In London the number of cases notified was 11,871 (including 310 cases
of membranous croup), and the number of deaths was 1772, or a mortality
of 14.9 per cent.
The treatment of diphtheria by its antitoxin continues to give improved
results, especially in laryngeal and tracheotomy cases, and those that come
under the treatment within two or three days of the onset of the illness.