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97
With regard to the houses from which these ten cases of
epidemic cerebro-spinal fever were notified, disinfection was
carried out in every case, and in the cases in which the
bacteriological evidence was positive, the walls were in
addition stripped. All drains were tested, and any insanitary
conditions or defects found were remedied.
It is a fact worthy of note that although most of these
ten cases were notified from houses where the patient had
been in contact with several other members of the family or
occupants of the same house, no second case occurred in the
same house in any instance. This would seem to suggest
that the disease is not infectious to any very marked extent,
as is the case with many of the more common infections, or
it may be that there are certain conditions or special circumstances
surrounding these cases, rendering the patient liable
to infection. What these factors are is not at present clear,
but bearing in mind the extremely fatal nature of the disease
and the experiences of past epidemics which have at various
times been recorded, it is important that the degree of infectiousness
and the channels by which it is spread should be cleared
up, and, as I have said, the results of the recent outbreaks in
Glasgow and Belfast when published, may help to throw light
on the subject. Meanwhile, it is the safest course to treat
the disease as a dangerous infectious disease, with respect to
which every precaution should be taken by a sanitary
authority to prevent any possible spread of infection.
Measles.
As Measles is not a notifiable disease, we are dependent
on the school returns and the death returns for our knowledge
of its prevalence and severity. During 1907 there were 72
deaths recorded from the disease, or 22 below the average for
the ten years, 1897-1906, as compared with 44 in 1906, and 124
in 1905.
The death-rate was .39 per 1,000 population, as compared
with .53 per 1,000, the mean death-rate for the preceding ten