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43
should arrange for the provision of such assistance.
If a midwife was originally in attendance the Medical
Officer of Health will already be in touch with the
case through the Inspector of Midwives.
The Danger of Smallpox.
Fortunately no cases of smallpox occurred during
the year but several Fulham persons were directly
exposed to infection during the outbreak which
occurred in London in September.
The infected clothes of two smallpox patients were
washed in a Fulham laundry, thus exposing the
laundry workers and more particularly 11 of their
number to grave risk.
Four residents of Fulham, including two nurses,
visited the ward of a general hospital from which two
patients were removed suffering from the disease,
and many other persons had also to be kept under
supervision. It was therefore providential that the
Borough escaped.
The public are much in need of education regarding
the necessity for vaccination and re-vaccination as
a safeguard against this loathsome disease. It is
unlikely that the present lucky record of escape will
continue if a considerable section of the public neglect
to take the most elementary and obvious precautionvaccination.
Non-Notifiable Diseases.
Diseases of the Heart.—The increase in the number
of deaths from diseases of the heart is a matter of
great importance to Public Health Authorities. In
England and Wales 64,059 deaths were registered from
this cause in 1925, compared with 60,650 in 1924. In
Fulham the number remained more or less stationary
from 1900 to 1909, but since then it has gradually
increased, until 1925, when it reached 259 and exceeded
the number of deaths due to cancer. In 1926, however,
the deaths from heart diseases fell to 195,