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trace be obtained as to the source of the infection, and the
. disease did not spread beyond the family attacked. In some
of the houses, viz., 32, where the patients lived, nuisances were
discovered, and in the others, 109 in mumber, not; but whenever
imperfect drainage arrangements or other nuisances were
discovered, they were speedily abated. With the exception of
the St. Mary's School cases, nothing like an epidemic has occurred
this year, unless those that happened in three houses in Cossy
Villas, within a month, can be considered worthy of that name,
I discussed the question as to the advisability of closing schools
when diphtheria was prevalent in my report for 1888, and therefore
need not further report on the subject. A noteworthy case
occurred in Mehetabel Road, where a girl 13 years of age took
into the house on April 13th a stray cat, which was affected
with running at the mouth and nose, and which she nursed
until it died on the 14th. On the 16th she sickened with sore
throat; when a medical practitioner was called in on the 18th
he pronounced it to be a case of diphtheria. On the 22nd the
girl died, and the medical certificate of death was "Diphtheria'
7 days." There was not any sanitary defect in the house, or
any case in the neighbourhood, or at the school she attended.
In another instance, which occurred not in this District
but at Bilston, the Clerk reported that he had accompanied
Dr. Bruce Lawes, an Inspector of the Local Government
Board, who had visited the district in consequence
of an outbreak of diphtheria and croup, and had found
that in three cases the disease had been communicated
by cats going from house to house, and in more than one
instance the children had died, and the cats also. These are not
the only cases in which I had good reason to believe that
infectious diseases had been communicated by cats.
The Influenza.—In the middle of December, 1889, this
district, in common with the rest of London, was visited by a
specific fever, to which this name has been assigned. There
were comparatively few cases until nearly the end of the