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1904]
106
DIPHTHERIA.
In the report for 1903 it was recorded that this disease, which includes
Membranous Croup, "showed a very large decrease in the number of cases
reported," and now it is again possible to record a further decline. During
1904 only 347 cases were notified, as against 455 in the preceding year, and as
compared with a corrected decennial average of 750. The present return is the
lowest hitherto known, and it is, therefore, exceedingly satisfactory to be able
to chronicle the event.
The attack-rate was ro2 per 1,000 of the population, as against a rate of
2.21 in the ten years immediately preceding.
In the County of London the attack-rate was 1.55 per 1,000 inhabitants,
and in the Encircling Boroughs 1.74.
Hospital Isolation.--260 out of the 347 known cases, or 74.9 per cent.,
were removed to hospital for isolation and treatment, of whom 18, or 6.9
per cent. died.
Fatality.—There died 28 persons out of 347 attacked, so that the fatality
was 8.1 per cent., as compared with an average fatality during thirteen years
(1891-1903) of 19.4.

Here it will be noted that there has been a steady decrease in the fatality
from 1894 to the end of last year, which is very suggestive of the success of
the antitoxin treatment of the disease.