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equivalent to a mortality of 19 per cent, oil registered cases.
The number of patients from this disease removed to isolation hospitals
was 107. The death rate for Hampstead from Diphtheria per 1,000
living inhabitants was 0.38, the highest rate for the last ten years with
the exception of 1892 when it was 0.39, and 1893 when it rose to 0.53.
During the year, the subject of infection recurring in houses after
children had returned from hospitals, was brought into notice by the
numerous cases that occurred. This was also very apparent in the early
part of 1901, when some fatal cases happened. I was directed to
communicate with the Asylums Board, and request that the Board
might bo induced to notify your Medical Officer of all cases of Scarlet
Fever and Diphtheria returning from the Managers' Hospitals to premises
within our Borough. A reply was received from the Clerk of the
Board to the effect that "the matter had been carefully considered by
the Board and their Committee, with the result that it had not appeared
that the trouble and additional expense for clerical assistance that would
be involved in furnishing such information, would be proportionate to
the usefulness thereof." The report of Professor Simpson on the subject
of infection from returned cases stated that all due and proper precautions
were taken before the children were discharged from hospitals. He
was inclined to think that children took cold on returning home, causing
discharges to appear from the nose and ears, by which the child again
became infectious. If such indeed be the case, it might have been
supposed there was all the more reason for communicating the fact of
the return of the child to the local Medical Officer, that the case might
be watched.
Puerperal Fever.—The number of cases of this disease recorded was
5, 3 of which proved fatal.
Notification of Infectious Disease.—The total number of certificates
received was 373, for which the sum of £57 11s. 6d. was paid to
medical practitioners. This amount is recouped to the Council, by
the Asylums Board out of the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund. The
total number of cases removed to fever hospitals for treatment was 260.
Influenza was the registered cause of 36 deaths, the disease being
particularly fatal in January. The deaths referred to Influenza in