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examinations at the Town Hall and antiseptic lozenges are also given
there, after the examination, free of charge. Certificates to return to
school or to work are also given without fee by the Medical Officer.
Sometimes such contacts have the disease without knowing it.
Therefore, do not delay in seeing the family doctor or the Medical
Officer any morning (except Sunday) between 10 and 11 a.m., at the
Town Hall.
Sterilise by boiling all eating and drinking utensils
such as cups and saucers, plates, tumblers, jugs, knives and spoons, and
give the house a thorough cleaning after disinfection.
All library books should be handed over to the disinfectors or
brought to the Town Hall for disinfection.
CHARLES S. THOMSON,
Medical Officer of Health.
Public Health Department,
Deptford Town Hall,
New Cross, S.E.14.
The London County Council officers have helped us throughout the
year by sending medical officers and nurses to examine contacts in the
schools. Though valuable time and much trouble have been given and
taken respectively alike by the Borough and County officers, I am
satisfied as I have explained above that our methods are somewhat
obsolete.
Scarlet Fever.
1921 951
1922 547
1923 349
1924 291
1925 310
Relatively speaking, 1925 was a normal year for scarlet fever in the
Borough. The mildness of the disease to-day increases the difficulty
of the diagnosis. The question of the Milne treatment was raised,
reported on and dropped. The line of advance in respect of scarlet
fever lies in a different direction. It is now quite possible to diagnose
scarlet fever with almost a hundred per cent. of accuracy. If a minute
dose of diluted scarlet fever Streptococcus anti-toxin is injected into
(not under) the skin, this, in a true case of scarlet fever, will produce a
marked blanching effect, extending over an area of one or two centimetres
in diameter. In a true case of scarlet fever the red rash is
blotted out all round the point of injection of the anti-toxin in from
six to twelve hours. Right throughout the disease this blanched area
persists.