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hospital. No other cases occurred in these houses or in the
neighbourhood. The fourth case was that of a commercial
traveller, who had been travelling in Kent, who was attacked in
Pembury Grove. He could not give any information as to the
source of the infection ; he was moved to the hospital on May
30th. His child was afterwards attacked with modified smallpox,
and removed to the hospital on the 18th June. The next
case was that of a child aged five years, who was attacked with
the disease on November 8th, and treated at homo. The source
of infection could not be ascertained, there had not been any
visitors to the house; the child had attended the Berger Road
Board School, where, however, there was not any case
amongst the children, so that the disease was not contracted at
school. On the 17th another child in the same house, aged
eight, was attacked, but the disease did not spread to any one
else. Vaccination had been performed in all these cases, and
all recovered.
The Scarlet Fever cases in the district do not require any
special mention beyond their number, and the care taken to
disinfect the premises and the infected articles of clothing and
bedding. It is almost certain that a very large number of cases
were not reported to me, as it seems to be generally believed,
firstly that disinfection is not so necessary as in small-pox ; and
secondly, that it is better for persons to have the fever when young
rather than when grown up, because it is then slighter, and less
likely to prove fatal. A careful inquiry with all the means at
present available, has been made by the Registrar-General of
Births, Deaths, &c., on this subject, and a large number of cases
collected, as shown in the following tables which have been
taken with some additions from the Registrar-General's fortyninth
report. The importance of the question, which could be
adequately discussed only from data obtainable at the Registrar
General's offices, must be my apology for the lengthy abstracts
and tables.