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42
Attention has been frequently drawn in these reports
to the mistaken idea that measles is only a trifling
disease, but its high fatality is illustrated by the returns
of the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylums Board for
1911, which show that of 3.144 patients admitted with
measles in that year 438 died, a mortality of 13.3 per
cent. compared with a mortality in their hospitals of 1.9
per cent. in 8,818 cases of scarlet fever and of 8.5 per cent.
in 5,034 cases of diphtheria, though it must of course
be borne in mind that the cases of measles admitted were
of a special class, being either poor-law cases or severe
and necessitous cases recommended by Medical Officers
of Health.

The death-rate from the disease in Fulham was
0.29 per 1,000, or 0.7 below the average rate for the
preceding ten years.
Hospital Accommodation for Whooping Cough.
In 1910 the Local Government Board issued an
Order empowering the Managers of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board to receive into their hospitals certain
persons suffering from whooping cough "who are
either in the institutions of Poor Law Guardians or can
be admitted into a Poor Law Infirmary by order of the
Relieving Officer," and in August, 1912, the Board made
a further Order reqniring the Managers to admit into