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it is now that it contracts pneumonia and is in danger of dying.
If the parent will only learn to isolate the first case, to keep all
the other children away, to keep the child's utensils to itself, to
wash them separately, above all to avoid exposing the child until
a fortnight at least after the rash has gone, and to call in a
medical man at an early period of the disease, the chances of
recovery are very much enhanced, and the risk of its extension
much reduced.
Unfortunately, however, these measures are not always possible
in Finsbury—isolation becomes impossible to a family who live
and sleep in one room, or who have two rooms at most. And in
this Borough these are the conditions which obtain in a very large
number of instances. Not infrequently, too, the mother may
have to go out to work and leave the child to be looked after by
an adult neighbour, or even a young girl of sixteen or seventeen
years.
In 21 of the 23 cases now under consideration measles was
followed by pneumonia, which caused the death of the infant; in
the other two cases the associated causes of death were, diarrha'a
and heart failure respectively.
Five of the deaths occurred in the Workhouse Infirmary, three
in various model "buildings." Fourteen of the deaths belonged
to Clerkenwell, nine to St. Luke's. Two of the infants were
illegitimate.
Hooping Cough.—There were 21 deaths due to this disease
a larger number than in 1908 and in 1907. Many of these deaths
are due to exposure, ignorance and carelessness. In 15 cases
pneumonia supervened as a complication, in the other 6 the disease
was followed by sudden heart failure, meningitis, cerebral haemmorrhage
and excessive diarrhoea. Eleven of the children died
at home, 4 in the Poor Law Infirmary and the rest in the large
general hospitals.