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20
SMALL-POX.
Two cases of small-pox were notified in Kensington, viz., a lift-attendant at the L.C.C.
Education Committee offices, aged 25, and a man of no regular occupation, aged 56. The latter
case proved fatal. Little information was forthcoming to throw light on the origin of either case.
The sufferers lived rather close to one another in streets near Notting Hill Gate station, and the
illness in the second case began at a date which suggested possible infection by the first case. All
I could learn was that the men knew one another by sight. They might have been in contact at
the critical time, but appeared not to have met consciously. The man first attacked was brought
into contact with many persons in the course of his duty. Another man employed at the same
establishment fell ill at about the same time, and it is a reasonable probability that both cases had
a common source of infection, which could not be traced. The inmates of the house where the first
local case occurred submitted to re-vaccination, which was at first refused by the wife and adult
daughter of the second case, who, however, having been called to the dying man's bedside, were
subsequently re-vaccinated at the hospital. Happily both of them escaped; they had been effectually
vaccinated in early life. The deaths from this cause in the three preceding years respectively
were 1, 11, and 0, the corrected decennial average number being 1·2.
The deaths in the Metropolis as a whole were 25, the corrected decennial average being 179;
22 of the deaths occurred in the hospital at Joyce Green. The cases notified were 492 in
number, compared with 417 in 1903, in which year the deaths were 13. The contributory boroughs
are set out in the table at page 31.
MEASLES.
Measles was the cause of 67 deaths, compared with 77, 93, and 34, in the three preceding
years; 61 and 6 in the Town and Brompton sub-districts respectively; the corrected decennial
average being 82. Fifty-eight of the deaths were registered in the 16 weeks, January 3—April 23,
and none in the last 16 weeks of the year. One hundred and seventy-one houses were disinfected
after the occurrence of measles in them in conformity with the order of the London County Council,
to which reference was made in the Report for 1903 (page 20).
The deaths from this cause, in London, as a whole were 2,261, and 337 below the corrected
decennial average (2,598): the rate of mortality was 0·49 per 1,000.
SCARLET FEVER.
The notifications of scarlet fever were 262, compared with 475, 372 and 330, in the three preceding
years; 157 in North Kensington, and 105 in South Kensington. The deaths were 5 (a casemortality
of 1·9 per cent.), and 16 below the corrected decennial average (21). All of them belonged
to the Town sub-district, and all occurred at outlying public institutions, to which 225 cases were
removed. The deaths in the preceding three years were 15, 21 and 14. The rate of mortality was
0·03 per 1,000 of the population.
The information as to scarlet-fever mortality in the borough—1856-1904—set out in Appendix
II. (Tables B, C, D, pages 118 and 119) shows the great reduction in the fatality of this disease in
recent years.
The deaths in London as a whole were 365, compared with 584, 563 and 362, in the three
preceding years, the corrected decennial average being 658. Of the 365 deaths 336 (92 per cent.)
took place in public institutions. The case-mortality was 2·9 per cent.; the rate 0·08 per 1,000 of
the population.
The notifications were 13,439, compared with 18,390, 18,258 and 12,536, in the three preceding
years. The mortality was 2·7 per cent. on cases notified, compared with 3·2, 3T and 2·9, in the three
preceding years.
The admissions to hospital were 11,401, compared with 14,159, 14,883 and 10,580 in the
preceding three years, or about 85·6 on cases notified.