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72
the courtyards and streets. But there is very considerable
difference between children crowded together in a school-room, in
confined air space, and children playing about in the open air.
Second :—Leaflets, giving instruction with regard to Measles,
might be distributed when necessary, with a view to impressing
upon parents the infectious nature of the disease, and pointing
out the risk of children suffering from the disease being exposed
to the cold or damp. I may add that the simple precaution of
taking care of children during their recovery from Measles, in
order to prevent them catching cold and suffering from Pneumonia
or Bronchitis, would probably do more to reduce the mortality
from this disease than almost anything else.
WHOOPING COUGH.
There were 72 deaths from Whooping Cough, giving a death
rate of 0.37. Like Measles, this disease shows a considerable
increase from 1901.
Whooping Cough is a disease of about two months duration,
and is chiefly characterized by bronchial catarrh and a frequent
paroxysmal cough. It generally occurs as an epidemic late on in
the winter, say from December to March. Though no age is
absolutely exempt from Whooping Cough, it is essentially a
children's disease, most of the cases being met with in children
under seven years of age. It is most fatal in the second year of
life. The disease is almost entirely spread directly from patient
to patient, the patient being infectious from the very commencement
of the attack, and remaining so as long as the "whoop "is
present. Owing to its infectiousness, isolation of the patient
from other children should be enforced until there is no longer
any signs of the "whoop."
The above principles are generally accepted as fully established,
and the experience of the disease in Finsbury in 1902, well
illustrate them. Out of the 72 deaths, 42 occurred in the second
half-year, and only nine in the first quarter. There were only 3
deaths in the last quarter of the year. Out of the 72 deaths,