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55
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, tlie 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
sign of the " whop."
EPIDEMIC DIARRHŒA.

Out of the total of 116 deaths of infants, 95 occurred in the third
or summer quarter of the year. The disease may therefore be considered
from that point of view.
Now in the third quarter of 1904 there were 183 deaths of
infants in Finsbury, that is, of children under 12 months of age.*
This works out at a mortality of 173.0 per 1,000 births. The infant
mortality rate for the whole of 1903 was 159.1 per 1,000 births,
and the intra-parochial rate for the same period was 129.6; the
average for London in 1903 was 129.7. If we take this last figure
as average standard for the Metropolis it will be seen that during
the third quarter of 1904 the infant mortality in Finsbury rose 43.3
above 129.7; or if it be compared with the infant mortality rate of
For the purposes of this note concerning deaths in the third quarter children
returned as dying at "twelve months of age" are included.