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35
Examining the removals more in detail (e.g., nature of disease),
it is seen that during 1904 in the Borough of Lambeth, the following
are the percentages:—
Smallpox 100.0 Typhoid 81.2
Scarlet Fever 81.9 Puerperal 20.0
Diphtheria } {82.6 } Erysipelas 19.9
Membranous } 80.8
Croup} { 27.3
It will be noted that all the notified Smallpox patients were
removed to Hospital, whilst the large percentages (larger than
last year) of Scarlet Fever, Typhoid, and Diphtheria patients
also removed to Hospital are again cause for congratulation.
Yearly, more and more Typhoid patients are being removed to
Hospital, where treatment is more satisfactory, and where
proper precautions can be taken to prevent the spread of the
disease—a practical impossibility in the crowded homes of the
poor, or even in the homes of the middle-classes. The discharges
from the bowels and kidneys of typhoid infected persons are
infectious, and many ways suggest themselves by which the
germs can be transferred from infected to non-infected persons
during nursing.
Taking the total number of notified cases of infectious diseases
(excluding Chicken-pox) during 1904, it will be noticed that the
zymotic incidence throughout the Borough of Lambeth is less
than it has ever been since the Notification Act, 1899, came
into force (vide Table K).
The total number of notifications received in Lambeth during
1904 is 48.01 per cent. below the average (Parish) of the ten
years (1891-1900), and less than those received during any
previous year since the introduction of the Notification Act.
There is again a marked decrease in the number of Diphtheria
certificates received during 1904, i.e., 55.7 per cent. below the
average of the statistics of the Parish of Lambeth for 10 years