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To this request the Local Government Board have replied " that the
question of extending certain of the provisions of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, to diseases other than those specified in Section 55 of the Act is
one which would be more satisfactorily considered with regard to the metro
polis as a whole than with regard to individual sanitary districts. Under
Sections 56 (b) and 58 this could be done by the London County Council with
the Board's approval, and the Board would suggest that, in the first instance,
if the Vestry are desirable that the provisions of Section 68 should be made
applicable to Measles, they should bring the matter under the attention of
the County Council." The Vestry have accordingly communicated with
the London County Council on the matter.
With regard to the question of the notification of Measles, I would
reiterate my opinion that a modified system of notification of Measles should
be tried, by which the first attack in every house invaded shall be notified,
but no subsequent case occurring in the same house within thirty days ; and,
as in so many cases no doctor is called in, it would also be essential to
enforce dual notification by the parent or guardian as well as by the doctor,
and the exception as to secondary cases should apply only to notification
by the medical practitioner. I must also again draw attention to the
necessity of providing hospital accommodation for the children of the poor
when suffering from Measles—not so much on the ground of the necessity
for isolation, but for the sake of the welfare of the patients, as a large proportion
of those who succumb to the disease would be saved if they could be
removed from the unfavourable conditions by which they are surrounded and
treated in a rational manner.
WHOOPING COUGH.
Sixty-one deaths were ascribed to this disease, being 14 below the
decennial average, allowing for the increase of the population, the death -
rate being 0-50, and that of the metropolis o'4i.
Like Measles, this is unfortunately too commonly looked upon as a
very trivial ailment, and not merely are no precautions taken to prevent its
spread, but comparatively little care is taken of the sufferers, who so
frequently succumb to one of the pulmonary complications induced by
neglect, so that more deaths are due to it than to any other Zymotic disease
except Diarrhoea and Measles; moreover in those who apparently recover
some permanent organic mischief often remains, which ultimately proves
fatal.