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12
ON THE SANITARY CONDITION OF
One case in St. Clement's was afterwards determined
not to be diphtheria, but another case not
notified proved fatal. Making this correction, there
were 15 persons of each sex attacked; 11 of each were
under 15 years of age (2 being under 1 year, and 6
between 1 and 3 years of age). In one-third of the
cases death ensued.
There is a considerable amount of evidence pointing
to school life as an important agent in the spread
of this disease. Without a complete list of all the
children attending the schools in or near the District
with particulars of the classes in which they were, and
of those away ill belonging to other districts, no
satisfactory conclusions can be formed as to the part
played by the schools in regard to the cases in this
District. Only 8 children affected attended school, and
half of these (two families) attended the same school,
the others attended each a different school.
In 8 cases the source of infection was traceable—two
children had previously suffered from what was
supposed to be ordinary sore throat, when a third one
developed the disease in more malignant form it was
recognised; a nurse engaged in attending diphtheritic
patients became infected herself; a father and mother
received the complaint from a daughter whose illness
was believed to be "simple tonsilitis'' so that isolation
had not been resorted to. Of the 30 cases, 2 came
direct from other districts, 9 were in houses with
defective drainage arrangements (in one was a large
circular cesspool 17 feet deep 10 feet across with an
overflow and waste water drain ending several feet from
the sewer and discharging its contents in the ground
beneath an unpaved vault) in at least 2 cases the houses