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24
Puerperal Fever.
Twenty-four cases of puerperal fever were notified
during the year, the decennial average being twentythree,
and there were four deaths, or 1.06 per 1,000 births
Erysipelas.
Ninety cases of erysipelas or thirty-seven below the
average in the preceding ten years were notified, and
seven deaths were attributed to the disease.
Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis.
Nineteen persons were notified as suffering from
cerebro-spinal fever three being soldiers, two of whom
were billeted in Fulham, and one was removed to Fulham
from his mother's home in Chelsea after the commencement
of his illness. Of the sixteen notified civilian
cases, nine proved fatal, and in addition, the death of a
boy aged fourteen, who was not notified was due to this
disease.
This boy had been employed as page in a hotel in the
Strand and his death which occurred within eighteen
hours of the onset of the disease was attributed to food
poisoning, until at a second post-mortem examination,
made by Dr. Spilsbury, it was found to be due to
cerebro-spinal fever. Three days before his illness he
had slept in the same bed with his two soldier brothers,
both of whom were home from camps where there had
been cases of the disease. They were both bacteriogically
examined twelve days after they slept with their
brother, but at that time neither was found to be a
carrier.
In two other instances the father of the patient had
been home from his regiment on leave within ten days
of the onset of the illness.