View report page

8
thinking that children recovering from this disease are often allowed to
return to school or to mix with others before their throats can be said
to be free from the typical diphtheria bacillus.
Measles.—The deaths from this cause numbered 26, against nine
for 1897 and 58 for 1896, and proved to be the most fatal cause of death
among the zymotic class, exceeding indeed the deaths from Scarlet Fever
and Diphtheria put together. The epidemic commenced in London in the
autumn of 1897, and attacked certain elementary schools in Hampstead
about the end of the year. The Christmas holiday did not appear to
have much effect in arresting the progress of the epidemic, so further
steps were taken in February with regard to those schools most directly
affected, and orders were made upon the Managers by the Sanitary
Authority, in accordance with Art. 88 in the Code of Regulations, to
close the Emmanuel Schools, West End ; the Infant department of St.
Mary's Schools, Kilburn; the Infant department of St. Paul's Schools,
Winchester Road; and the Infant department of the Broomsleigh
Street School. This latter department alone consisted of 500 children,
so that it can be readily seen that the aggregation of large numbers of
young children affords a ready means of spreading this highly infectious
complaint. The majority of the schools in question were directed to
remain closed until the 5th of March, after which period we were not
much troubled with the disease, which finally disappeared in the month
of April.
The London County Council sought to learn the views of your
Vestry on the proposal that the Council should include Measles in
the term "Dangerous Infectious Disease " for the purposes set out in
Section 68 of the Public Health Act, 1891, in order that the Sanitary
Authority might have power to proceed, if necessary, against parents
who send their children to school suffering from Measles. It is stated
that without making Measles notifiable, it may yet be placed among the
diseases mentioned in the Act. Your Board agreed that it was desirable
to include Measles for this object. With regard to the question of
notification, for which public opinion does not yet appear to be ripe, the
difficulty of furnishing sufficient hospital accommodation for the 100,000
cases occurring bi-annually in London is, in face of the want of interest
at present on the part of the public, an insurmountable barrier.
Whooping Cough caused 27 deaths, all of which took place in the