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8
schools and places of summer resort, especially crowded
sea-side places; schools, public and private, rank first;
and I have no hesitation in saying that two-thirds of
the contagious diseases of children, above 4 or 5 years of
age, may have their sources of infection traced to schools;
this is caused by want of sufficient care and the nonobservance
of proper measures to destroy or modify the
infectious relics of the diseases in convalescents who
are returning to school, and who thus become the sources
of infection and death to numbers of others; a minimum
interval, before the return to school, should be
adopted and insisted upon, and strict supervision in
this respect exercised. Holiday resorts during the
season contribute largely to the spread of these
diseases and the mortality therefrom; nothing is
more common than for families of children, in comparatively
good health, to be attacked by measles,
scarlatina, or diphtheria when visiting such places,
especially at the sea-side, either by coming into contact
with others who have been ill, or from living in houses
by which such have been previously occupied. These
are clearly preventable causes—of probably the greatest
amount of all others—of disease and mortality among
children up to 10 or 12 years of age; and yet there are
no prescribed rules—voluntary or compulsory—for
guidance, management, and supervision under such
circumstances.
It should be known that the infecting property
remains—more or less, according to the disease—in
full activity and virulence for some time after the
patient is restored to apparent health ; and it is only by
the exercise of great care on the part of parents and principals
of schools, and the adoption of proper hygienic