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1905]
136
and the parents, especially the mothers, to whom the schools are really a place
of safety for their youngest children during the day while they are away
earning their daily bread.
This subject is being very carefully considered by the Medical Officer of
Health of the Borough, who is most anxious to do nothing hastily that might
cause injury either to the scholars or the schools.
Chicken Pox.—637 cases were notified by the teachers, as compared
with 182 in the preceding year, so that here again there has been very laudable
zeal shown by them. In Yerbury Road School as many as 54 cases were
known, in Canonbury Road School 37, in Hungerford Road School 36, in
Upper Hornsey Road School 33, in Buckingham Street School 30, and in
other schools the cases notified ranged from nothing in 4 schools to 20.
Whooping Cough.—There is no doubt that not nearly so many cases of
this disease occurred in the Borough during the year, for the teachers notified
only 732 as against 1,293 in 1904.
The disease seems to have been more prevalent in Yerbury Road School
than in the others, for from it were reported 71 cases. It is noticeable with
respect to this school that in the preceding year there was also a very large
number reported by its teachers, indeed, as many as 107 cases
The other schools in which the disease was most prevalent, and the cases
occurring in them, were as follows:—
Montem Street School, 54; Duncombe Road School, 49; Gillespie Road
School, 42; Westbourne Road School, 34; St. Thomas School, 36 ; Grafton
Road School, 39; Caledonian Road School, 39; and Upper Hornsey Road
School, 33.
No cases were notified from 10 schools.
Mumps and other Diseases.—As many as 1,011 cases were notified.
These include mumps and other diseases which can hardly be rightly classed as
"epidemic," although they may be said to be "infectious," such a disease
as Itch and some other parasitic diseases with which the present schools
management seem very anxious to deal.
Once more, the Medical Officer of Health, as Head of the Public Health
Department, wishes to express his sincere and grateful thanks for the valuable
assistance he has received from the school authorities and teachers in his
endeavour to deal with the infectious disease occuring among the scholars.