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41
these families comprised 34 adults and 39 children. It appears
that on June 25, after a few days' illness, a little boy, aged 5,
died of some throat complaint, which from its history, at least,
simulated diphtheria. Another child, a playmate, contracted
diphtheria, and was notified to me on June 21, and subsequently
six other children and an adult in the barracks suffered from this
disease. Stringent measures were taken, in which I am glad
to acknowledge the co-operation of the military authorities, and no
extension of the outbreak occurred.
There were four or five instances of small groups of diphtheria
infection among families or playmates. There were no school
outbreaks nor any sign of milk-borne infection. In two cases
it appeared probable that infection had been derived from cats
which were suffering from sore throat affection. Bacteriological
examinations were made of these two animals, but no sign of
diphtheria was found.
SCARLET FEVER
The total number of notifications of Scarlet Fever received during
the year was 456, as against last year's 323, and 283 in 1903.
This figure of 456 includes 7 cases of Scarlet Fever which occurred
in the Holborn Infirmary in Islington, as part of an outbreak in
that institution. The infection was not derived in Finsbury, which,
however, was credited with 19 cases in all, 12 of which were
returned as not suffering from Scarlet Fever. We have, therefore,
only included the 7 cases. The age and sex incidence of the
456 cases was as follows :—
Ages 0- 1- 5- 10- 15- 20- 30-40 Total
Males 5 93 76 17 5 9 3 208
Females 6 90 116 26 3 4 3 248
Total 11 183 192 43 8 13 6 456
From these figures it will be seen that 386 out of the 456 cases
occurred in children under 10 years of age. In relation to school