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148
INFLUENZA.
Twenty-five deaths were registered as due to
influenza, against 17 deaths in the previous year.. No
official action was taken in referenee to this complaint,
as no application was made for the disinfection of any
of the houses in which death occurred.
PHTHISIS.
The voluntary notification of phthisis, which your
Council decided upon on 7th April, 1902, was continued
during last year. Altogether, 118 cases were
notified to me against 109 cases in the previous year.
These, no doubt, represent only a small proportion of
the cases that actually occurred, as 159 deaths were
registered, against 148 deaths in the previous year. In
all cases notified or in which death occurred, the
premises were at once inspected, and after death in all
cases occurring in private dwelling houses an offer was
made to disinfect the premises at the expense of your
Council. In every case a printed instruction as to the
course that should be adopted for the prevention of
consumption was left at the premises. In very few
instances was advantage taken of the offer of your
Council to disinfect. Of the 118 cases notified last
year, 96 were reported by the Medical Superintendents
of the Infirmaries of Fulham and Hammersmith. Only
11 were reported by private Medical Practitioners,
10 by the Medical Superintendent of Brompton
Hospital and one by the Medical Superintendent of
St. Margaret's Hospital. Very little or any practical
good is done by the voluntary notification of this
disease, except that it is a means by which public
opinion may be directed as to the necessity of taking
precautionary measures against the spread of the
disease.
In reference to this disease the Local Government
Board issued a Code of Regulations (Order 52, 712),
an abstract from which is given in the following
circular:—