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made to isolate the patient even when this is to a greater or less
extent possible. The attitude of the public may be summed up
in the phrase, "it's only Measles." The unfortunate result of
this erroneous attitude is shown by the high mortality and the
ease with which the disease in epidemics tends rapidly to spread
and get out of control. In the memorandum on Measles issued
by the Local Government Board, attention is drawn to the fact
"that Measles is often fatal apart from neglect or exposure during
convalescence to which greater importance is commonly attached.
Thus, in one town in which 419 deaths from Measles were investigated,
it was found that one-fourth of the deaths occurred in the
first six days of the illness, i.e., within about three or four days
from the appearance of the rash, while another third of the total
deaths occurred between the seventh and the end of the twelfth
day of disease." Owing to the frequency of respiratory complications,
e.g., bronchitis, pneumonia, &c., the early and appropriate
treatment of Measles is a matter of prime importance, and that
this desirable state of things is not being obtained under existing
circumstances there is unfortunately every reason to believe.
Hospital Treatment.
Recently some attempt has been made to secure hospital
treatment in the case of poor law and other patients. Unfortunately
the amount of accommodation available is, during
epidemics, as has happened recently, likely to be quickly used
up, and if this useful procedure is to be effective there will require
to be provided a much larger number of beds than seem to be
under existing conditions practicable. It is not contended that
hospital isolation will prove very successful in preventing the
spread of the disease to any considerable extent, but there is no
doubt that such procedure reduces the risk to life, by mitigating
the severity of the attack and preventing serious complications
arising owing to the care and attention bestowed on the patient,
a condition of things impossible to secure to a very great extent
in a district such as Battersea, where the opportunities for isolation
and home treatment are so frequently inadequate.
School Closure and Exclusion.
Very little benefit appears to have been derived from School
closure in the case of Measles, nor is this to be expected when the
character and mode of spread of the disease is borne in, mind.
When a case of Measles breaks out in a Class-room the rest of
the Class-room has already been exposed to infection, and the
only course to follow is to exclude all children from the Class
who have not already had Measles from the ninth to the
fourteenth day after the last attendance of the first case. All
infected children are by this means excluded before they become