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disease always facilitates the means of spreading the infection,
as parents become much more careless in allowing the children
that are well to mix with the sick; no doubt the congregation
of large numbers of children in schools is one of the greatest
factors in disseminating the disease. During the year my
attention has frequently been called to children "peeling" whilst
attending, school; it is scarcely necessary for me to add that in
such cases prompt measures were taken to secure isolation. In
the case of infectious diseases occurring amongst children who are
attending public schools, in this district I am glad to say, we get
the most cordial co-operation of the school teachers, in preventing
the spread of the disease, and to this end we have lately
adopted a plan by which the school teachers are informed when
disinfection has been carried out by us, in order that the children
living in the infected houses may again resume their studies
DIPHTHERIA.
Diphtheria occupies a notable position amongst zymotic
diseases, and it is a fact that it shows a tendency to increase its
ravages in spite of advances in sanitation. There is no epidemic
disease as to its origin about which there has been so much
speculation, we are aware that during the last five years it has
made rapid progress in densely populated towns, especially in
every district of the Metropolis. It has been sought to be shown
by some from the fact that a larger proportion of new streets,
courts, etc. being paved than formerly, that the ground air is more
readily drawn into the houses and so helps to cause this disease,
by others it is supposed to be due to faulty drainage, polluted
water, and various other theories have been put forward, but up
to the present no satisfactory cause has been discovered; we
know that bad sanitary conditions are favourable for its spread, and
that the condition of school life is largely the cause of its propagation;
its greatest victims are between the age of three and ten,
and no doubt many children who although able at the time to
attend school have already the disease upon them and so contaminate
others; if we are at present somewhat in the dark as
to its cause, we are now able to say that the disease is one of a
fungoid nature and that the bacillus has been identified; as to
its treatment, it is believed that we are on the eve of a discovery,
or I should say confirming the discovery of Professor Behring of
Berlin, who has found that the inocculation of "antitoxin" into
patients suffering from Diphtheria is a specific for the cure of the
disease. The College of Surgeons have given a large amount
of money and the Asylum Board authorities have placed their
Hospitals at the di posal of the investigators, and before long we
shall know the results, which judging by what we hear up to the
present time will probably be regarded as one of the greatest
discoveries of the age.
In this district we had 325 cases notified during the year, of
which 82 died, 101 of the cases were treated in Hospitals. Enquiries
were set on foot as to the sanitary condition of the homes
of these patients, and the drains were tested in 263 instances, in