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43
ZYMOTIC DISEASES.

were notified during the year, with a mortality of 14, while Chickenpox,
Whooping Cough, Measles, and Epidemic Diarrhoea, to which
notification does not apply, contributed 28 deaths.
It affords me considerable pleasure to bo able to report that further
records have been established in the Vital Statistics of Hampstead in
regard to the zymotic diseases.
The total mortality from all the Zymotic diseases was 42, representing
a Zymotic death rate of 0·47 per 1000 of the population, as compared
with 56 or 0·65 per 1000 of the population in 1904.
The attack rate from notifiable zymotic diseases has fallen to the
extraordinarily low figure of 3·3 per 1000 of the population, and the
mortality from the 7 principal zymotic diseases to 38, equivalent to a
rate of 0·43 per 1000 of the population.
I have no hesitation in stating that after making due allowance for
the improvement in the sanitary condition of the Borough, these
eminently satisfactory results are to a very large extent due to the
prompt and thorough manner in which the Staff of the Public Health
Department has investigated each case as it occurred, and taken the
necessary steps to prevent the spread of the disease.
Mistaken Diagnosis and Bacteriological Examination.
Each Annual Report of the Metropolitan Asylums Board contains
statistics of the number of cases sent to their Hospitals wrongly
diagnosed, and on several occasions last year these statistics led to statements
being made which would appear to contain reflections on the
medical men upon whose certificate the case was sent to the Fever
Hospital.