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17
There were 5 deaths from this disease during the year; no deaths in
1895; and in 1894 there were 7 deaths. In London there were 591
deaths, and in 1895, 596 deaths attributed to this disease.
MEASLES.
This disease is not usually notified, and it is not so in this district.
During the last year there were 32 deaths from this disease; last year
there were 45 deaths.
In London there were 3,697 deaths from measles, and the RegistrarGeneral
states that measles appears to have been more fatal last year
than in any previous year on record, with the single exception of the
year 1864.
Moreover, there are many more deaths from measles than are represented
by the above figures; for I have found, on investigating the history
of many children that have been registered as having died of bronchitis,
puenmonia, or pleuro-pneumonia, that they had, not long before death,
been suffering with measles; and often other children in the same house
were either ill, or had recently recovered from measles. In many cases
a doctor is not in attendance until the child is seriously ill with a serious
complication of measles like those mentioned above; the rash, by this
time, has probably disappeared, and the mother considers that the child
has recovered from measles, and when the child dies the cause of death
is certified as due to the complication without any mention of the
primary cause.
It is not surprising that there are so many cases as it is a very infectious
disease, and, as a rule, not the least attempt is made to prevent
its spread, healthy children generally being allowed to be in the same
room with the sick, and even in the same bed.
Disinfection is carried out in those houses in which the existence of
measles have come to our knowledge (by the death returns or otherwise),
but this generally cannot be done until after the death or convalescence
of the children.
WHOOPING COUGH.
This, also, is not notified. It was the cause of 26 deaths. In 1895
there were only 8 deaths, and in 1894, 22 deaths.
In London there were 2,937 deaths from this disease, corresponding
to a rate of 0.65 per 1,000 living, and considerably exceeded the rate
in any recent year.