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the reception of small-pox patients. I ventured at the time to
deprecate the haste with which the Committee, almost in the
spirit of panic, had acted, giving reasons for the belief that
the imagined emergency did not exist, and having regard to
the serious demands of scarlet fever upon the Managers'
resources. It soon became apparent that the course adopted
by the Committee was entirely unnecessary.
MEASLES.
Measles was the cause of 18 deaths in 1893 (16 in the Town
sub-district, and 2 in Brompton), the decennial average corrected
for increase of population being 77. All but one of
the deaths occurred under five years of age, four of them in
the first year of life. This low mortality is accounted for by
the fact that Measles had been epidemic in 1892, the deaths
in that year having been 109, and 35 above the corrected
average.
Measles in London.—The deaths from measles in
London were 1,661 and 1,053 below the corrected decenial
average. The death-rate was 0.39 per 1,000 population, the
rate in the preceding decennium having been 0.63. In 1890
the deaths from measles were 3,291, and 664 above the average;
in 1891 only 1,807, and 871 below the average; in 1892 the
deaths were 3,393, being 791 above the average, and 1,732
more than in 1893. The mortality was in excess in six
out of the ten years 1883-92.
It is to be regretted that comparatively little care is
taken by parents among the poorer classes to prevent the
spread of measles. Not regarding it as a serious disease;
considering it, moreover, to be as inevitable as teething, they
naturally enough rather like to have all of the children ill
at one time and get the trouble over. It must be allowed,
however, that it is difficult to prevent measles from spreading,
the disease being highly infectious from an early stage, if not
from the commencement of the attack. The circumstances,