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themselves, carry about with them, at least for the first week after
their discharge, the power of infecting others. This power does not
appear to leave them by any length of stay in hospital. It is a
question to my mind whether it is a good thing to keep children so
long in hospital as they appear to get the disease grafted on to
them. The power of infecting seems to die off after they have been
at home for a week or ten days. Such cases are a great danger to
other children when they are brought into contact with them
immediately on leaving the hospital.
DIPHTHERIA.
The deaths from this disease have increased in the year. The
number being 72 this year, and 65 in 1897. The total number of
cases notified, including Membranous Croup, was 459. The notified
cases in 1897 were 331.
The annual mortality rate was 0.59 per 1,000 living.

Of the 459 cases, 376 were removed to hospital with 57 deaths, a
mortality of 1.5.1 per cent.
83 cases were treated at home with 15 deaths, a mortality of 18.0
per cent.
The parish of Newington had the highest death-rate in Diphtheria
of all the London parishes, with the exception of three East End
ones, for the quarter ending 30th September. It had also a high
death-rate from the same cause during the last quarter of the year.
Of the schools, Victory Place School, Sayer Street, Crampton Street,
Westmoreland Road Board Schools, and Sutherland Square Church
School, were those whose pupils were most affected. I was able to
prove after a full investigation of a large number of cases, that the
school had certainly conduced to the spread of the complaint,
notably so at Victory Place School, and at St. Paul's School,