View report page

specimen their presence was doubtful; while in three the specific microorganisms
were not discovered. To my mind, however, the one positive
result is worth more than the four negative, for it points absolutely to the
fact that there is one child at least attending the school with the throat
containing the organisms which are considered to be the cause of the
disease, although the characteristic clinical signs were absent. It is
difficult to contend that this child happened to be the only one affected out
of 55 who were attending these two classes on October 30th. I am quite
alive to the factors which render school-closing in a crowded locality a much
less satisfactory measure than it would be in the country, but so far as I
can make out after a consideration of the milk supply and of the various
other places of meeting where infection might be conveyed I have come to
the conclusion that attendance at the infants' department of Heber Road
Board School, and to a lesser degree at the girls' section, is the principal
factor common to all the cases I have mentioned.
The number of primary cases occurring at the other schools in the
neighbourhood is exceedingly instructive. For the same period the maximum
at any one school was three at St. John's School, while Goodrich Road
Board School, which is situated near Heber Road and draws very much the
same class of children, had no primary cases of diphtheria during the
month. I therefore, as Medical Officer of Health, advise that the infants'
department be closed for a period of three weeks, and my strongest reason
is the discovery of the diphtheria bacillus in a child actually attending
school. Will you therefore kindly put this report before the Sanitary
Authority so that they may consider whether my advice is to be carried out
and the infants' department of Heber Road Board School accordingly
closed? —Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) FRANCIS STEVENS, Medical Officer of Health.
The Chairman, Sewers and Sanitary Committee.
Taking a period of three weeks, after the closure of the
school, I find that there were 7 primary cases of diphtheria
notified among children who were pupils of that school. Of
these, I came from the Boys' Department, 2 from the Girls',
and 4 from the Infants'. In three of the cases I should say
that the illness had started when the School was closed.
The decline of the disease as shewn, especially in the
number of first persons attacked being of school age, is so
marked that I do not think it can be explained by the theory of
the disease having, as it were, burnt itself out by all those who
were susceptible to diphtheria having been attacked and excluded,
but rather to the destruction of the focus of infection
by the closure of the school.
xi.