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no further action would be required. With regard to measles, however, the case is
different. Having ascertained that measles was the prevailing complaint, the Infants'
department was kept under observation for a few days and it being found that the
number of absentees through measles continued to increase, I put myself into
communication with the medical officer of the School Board who informed me on the
29th that the Infants' department had been closed. The department was closed for
three weeks and so far as I have been able to ascertain, with beneficial results with
regard to the prevalence of measles in connection with the school.
WHOOPING COUGH.
There were 115 deaths as compared with 83 in 1895 and 86 in 1894. With the
exception of two, all the children who died were under five years of age. The deathrate
was 0.94 per thousand inhabitants, being highest in Hoxton New Town where
the deaths were at the rate of 1.23 per thousand.
In 1895 Whooping Cough caused a death rate of 0.67, in 1894 0.70, and in 1893
it was 0.54. The number of deaths in the metropolis was 2,937 and the death-rate
0.66 per 1000. Whooping Cough is one of the most fatal of infantile complaints, and
like measles it is oftentimes attended with chest complaints.
INFLUENZA.
The deaths attributed to this cause numbered 7 as compared with 57 in 1895, 15
in 1894, and 36 in 1893. The number of deaths in the Metropolis attributed to this
disease was 496, a number smaller than in any year since the first year of the
epidemic.
TUBERCULAR DISEASE,
This group of diseases contributed 301 to the total number of deaths in the
parish, the death rate being 2.48 as compared with 3.2 in 1895, 2.95 in 1894, and 313
in 1893. The majority of the deaths under this heading, viz., 223, resulted from
phthisis or consumption.
Consumption, usually regarded as a disease which is hereditary, is really one
which is acquired. Any conditions which tend to impair the health of the individual
are predisposing causes in the individual; and conditions which impair the health of
the community tend to favour the prevalence of consumption amongst the members
of that community. Hence the important part played by overcrowding, deficiency of
light and air, want of cleanliness, and dampness in dwellings, irregularity in living,
and intemperance, in producing the soil favourable to the growth of the microorganism
(Tubercle bacillus), which is the cause of the disease.
The micro-organism of consumption is contained in the material (sputum) which
is coughed up by consumptive persons, and in all cases care should be taken to spit this
material, not into a fireplace or handkerchief, but into a receptacle containing water,
the object being to prevent the material, which contains the germs of the disease