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21
SMALL-POX.
This disease was non-existent in the Borough throughout the year. The corrected decennial
average number of deaths from this cause was 1.3.
The deaths in London, as a whole, were 10. Eight of the deaths occurred in hospital, to
which 53 cases were admitted. The cases notified were 74, compared with 417, and 492 in the
preceding two years. The contributory boroughs are set out in the table at page 35.
MEASLES.
This disease was the cause of 54 deaths, compared with 93, 34, and 67, in the three preceding
years ; 52 and 2 in the Town and the Brompton sub-districts respectively ; the corrected decennial
average number being 77. The four-weekly tale of deaths is set out in the table at page 15.
The deaths from this cause in London, as a whole, were 1,715, and approximately 780 below
the corrected decennial average (2,495) : the rate of mortality was 0.37 per 1,000 persons living.
The lady sanitary inspectors commenced, in June, a systematic visitation of cases of measles
reported by school teachers—to the number of 479 in the seven months. Other 138 cases were
met with in the houses visited, making a total of 617 : 588 of the cases were in North Kensington,
509 of them in three wards; viz., in St. Charles Ward 114, Golborne 270, and Norland 125.
Four hundred and sixty-four of the sufferers were under five years of age (including 50 under
one year) and 127 between 5 and 7 years. All of the 54 deaths were of children below five years
of age ; viz., under one year, 13 ; between 1 and 2 years, 25 ; and in the following three years of age,
6, 4, and 6, respectively. The object of the visitation was two-fold ; to impress on mothers the danger
of the disease if neglected, and to carry out the requirements of the County Council's order with
respect to disinfection. In only a small proportion of the cases was a doctor in attendance, and
few precautions appeared to be taken to prevent spread of the disease. Some mothers, indeed,
expressed desire for all of the children to get it and " have it over." The disinfections carried out
were few compared with the number of cases; but in many houses several children, often in more
than one family, were ill, simultaneously or successively, and disinfection could not be carried out
until after recovery of the last case. A Leaflet calling attention to the serious nature of the
disease, and the danger incurred through neglect of proper care of the little sufferers, was distributed
at every known infected house.
SCARLET FEVER.
The notifications of scarlet fever were 332, compared with 372, 320, and in the preceding
three years: 186 in North Kensington and 146 in South Kensington. The deaths were 21 (a
case-mortality of 6.3 per cent.) and 2 above the corrected decennial average (19). Fourteen
belonged to the Town sub-district, and 7 to Brompton. All of them occurred at outlying public
institutions, to which 301 cases were removed. The rate of mortality was 0.12 of the population.
The deaths in the preceding three years were 21, 14, and 5, respectively.
A group of ten cases may be cited as an illustration of a not uncommon mode of spread
of the disease. The first case, which ended fatally, was notified, on August 1st, at a house in
Kramer Mews. Four cases, in one family, were notified at a house in Richmond Road on the
9th, and suspicion having been directed to a second house in Kramer Mews, it was ascertained
that four children thereat, all in one family, had the disease; but not being " ill," were allowed
to be, and were seen, in the street. These children were the source of infection to the other five
cases, and to a fifth member of their own family subsequently. All of the cases were removed to
hospital. The mother of the four children in Kramer Mews was away from home ill. The father, a
coal-carman, always away from home from early morning till late in the evening, professed ignorance
of the nature of what appeared to him to be a trifling ailment of the children; and
there was no ground for questioning his good faith. These children who when first seen, were
" peeling," had visited at the house whence the first case had been removed, and had played in the
street with the first mentioned group of children.
The information as to scarlet-fever mortality in the borough in the fifty years—1856-1905
—set out in Appendix II. (Tables B, C, D, pages 130 and 131) shows the great reduction in the
fatality of this disease in recent years.
The deaths in London, as a whole, were 549, compared with 563, 362, and 365, in the preceding
three years, the corrected decennial average being 595. Of the 549 deaths 538 (98 per
cent.) took place in public institutions. The case-mortality was 3.1 per cent.; the mortality-rate
0.12 per 1,000 of the population.