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Scarlet Fever.—The total number of cases of this diseass notified
during the year was 22-5, against 291 for the previous year, and of these
119 were removed to hospitals. The fatal cases were five, or two less
than for the preceding year. The cases appear to have been of a mild
type, for the mortality reached only 2 "2 per cent.
Diphtheria.—One hundred cases of this disease were notified,
against 189 for 1896 and 112 for 1895. The deaths registered from
this cause numbered 17, a decrease of 12 on the previous year, and
equal to a mortality of 17 per cent, on registered cases. Thirty-six
cases were sent into hospitals. Diphtheria in London is stated by the
Registrar-General to be the assigned cause of 2,261 deaths in the course
of the year 1897. These deaths were equal to a rate of 0-51 per 1,000,
whilst the rate for Hampstead is stated by the same authority to be 0.22.
With regard to insanitary conditions, a careful examination of the
houses where the cases occurred was made in every instance, but
frequently with the result of finding the drainage in good order.
Infection by personal contact, especially by the agency of schools, is
an active means of spreading this formidable disease, which shows,
unfortunately, a tendency to increase year by year in the metropolis.
Measles occasioned nine deaths, against 58 for the preceding year,
the disease having been epidemic in the early months of 1896. It has
been noticed that measles tends to become both prevalent and fatal at
periods of two years. In December of 1897, the expected recrudescence
of this disease commenced, and. it spread with great rapidity among
children attending elementary schools. The closing of the schools for
the Christmas vacation did not seem to have much effect in checking
the progress of the malady, probably because the mischief had already
been done by the children taking the complaint home to the other young
children. The further history of this epidemic belongs to the records
of the year 1898, but I may state that during the first quarter of this
year we lost 24 children from this cause.
The London County Council has recently, in a circular letter,
sought to learn the views of the London Sanitary Authorities, on the
proposal that the London County Council should include measles in the