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41
RETURN CASES.
There were in all 18 cases of infectious illness following
the return home of patients sent to hospital
for isolation, 11 after scarlet fever and 7 after diphtheria.
All the former and three of the latter were
carefully investigated, and the results are to be found
tabulated in Appendix B., at the end of this report.
At the beginning of October, Prof. Simpson, late
Medical Officer of Health of Calcutta, was engaged by
the Asylums Board to make a special investigation
into the matter. All cases subsequent to his appointment
were jointly investigated with him.
In connection with the return cases of scarlet
fever, the most frequent feature appears to be the
occurrence in the home-coming patient of nasal
catarrh, usually associated with cracks round the
nostrils, and enlargement of the glands of the neck.
In several cases, the patients appear to have had colds
immediately after their return home. It would appear
that the infection was derived from the nose and
throat rather than the desquamation. The cases of
return diphtheria have been too few to warrant any
deduction (even the most provisional) being made on
this occasion. In the latter cases, bacteriological
examinations of swabs from the throats of the returned
patients have been made, but the results obtained, up
to the end of the year, were negative.