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109
Every care is taken, so far as it is possible to do, to prevent
the spread of infection. All houses in which cases are notified by
the schools or from other sources of information are visited, and
leaflets calling attention to the dangerous nature of the disease,
and precautions to be taken, are left at the houses. Disinfection
of the rooms is carried out when the patient has recovered.
Whooping Cough.
Whooping-cough, like Measles, is a very fatal disease of
childhood, especially to very young children. During 1908, in
the Borough of Battersea, 39 deaths from this disease were registered,
as compared with 62 in 1907. The deaths were 31 below
the average for the preceding ten years, and were equivalent to a
death rate of .21 per 1,000, as compared with .39, the mean death
rate for the previous ten years.

In this disease, as in Measles, the influence of environment
is well shown in the above figures. North-West Battersea suffered
most, and South-West Battersea least from the disease.
The death rate per cent. under one year of age was 53.8 per
cent., and from one to five years 46.2 per cent., the total percentage
fatality under five years of age being 100.
The need that exists for the protection of young children
from the risk of exposure to infection is strikingly shown in the
above figures, as well as in those relating to deaths from Measles.
In both diseases the schools are the medium, especially
as regards Measles, by which infection is spread. The
infant departments of the public Elementary Schools contain
a large number of children under five years of
age aggregated in large classes, and these form a most susceptible