View report page

infants, and this must be partly contributed to by the rise of
general education, and the special education which is undertaken
by the Municipal Authorities and voluntary bodies, under the
stimulus of the Maternity and Child Welfare Acts. There are no
doubt many other contributory causes, such as the rise in the rate
of wages and the cheapening of food, but I think the two first
causes mentioned have played a great part.
Coming next to infectious complaints, there has been a very
satisfactory reduction in tuberculosis, enteric fever and small-pox.
In tuberculosis the figures refer only to deaths. Notifications
have not been included for two reasons, namely, that the notification
of tuberculosis did not come into force until 1912, and secondly
the notifications for this disease are not as good an indication of its
reduction as the deaths. Enteric fever has practically disappeared
from the Borough, but the same may be said of Great Britain
generally. We have been very free from small-pox with the
exception of four years of the period under review. I am very
sorry to have to report that there has been no very serious change
in the prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria. In fact, the
latter disease is inclined to go up, and the only thing that can be said
of scarlet fever is that the form of the disease is much milder, and
the mortality therefore less than at the beginning of the period
under survey. The only serious outbreak of infectious disease
during the time that I have held office, was in the first years 1901
and 1902, when we had 331 cases of small-pox. In 1903 and 1904
there were twenty-six cases of this disease, and since that period
there have been only six cases altogether. The only general
infectious diseases which remain to be seriously dealt with are
diphtheria and puerperal fever, and no doubt in the near future,
some method of reducing the mortality in these will be found.
The most interesting changes during the period of my office,
have been in the general condition of the inhabitants, especially
the working classes, and in the Public Health Department itself.
Comparing a gathering of the former in the early years of my
official life with the latter period of same, one is struck by the
fact that babies and children are much more sensibly dressed.
The same applies to the adults and especially the women. It is
quite noticeable in any public gathering how much better dressed