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The largest number of cases reported during
the year from any one house was 5. There were
two such groups (Nos. 11 and 50, Appendix B,
p. 113). In the first group (No. 11), three of
the patients were found to be peeling when the
first notification was received, and the fifth case
in the house followed the return of a patient
from hospital. In the second group (No. 50), the
cases followed each other at such close intervals
as to make it evident that the infection was passed
directly from patient to patient. In each group the
patients were removed to hospital as soon as the
disease was reported. It would be beyond the scope
of this Report to deal with all the instances of
multiple infection in the houses, and it must suffice to
direct attention to the paragraphs on the causes of
such secondary cases, and to the analysis of the
reputed cause of each group, contained in Appendix B.
(See page 108, et seq.)
In 22 instances, two or more cases were reported
simultaneously, in sixteen, two cases, and six, three.
In thirteen out of the twenty-two instances, the disease
in the first patient appears to have been unrecognised—probably
through want of medical attendance
in many cases—until the secondary cases occurred In
eight instances the disease spread to a second family
living in the same house.
Of the 491 cases, 380 were removed to hospital,
equal to 77.3 per cent., as compared with 76.8 per