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29
of the disease. I dealt with this subject fully in my report for
1891 (pages 97-106), and, without repeating the arguments
then employed, it will suffice here to say, that I have seen
no reason to modify the conclusion at which I then arrived,
viz, "that it would be of little or no use to have notification
of measles unless hospital accommodation were provided on a
large scale for the use of the sufferers therefrom;" and of this
there is no present prospect.
SCARLET FEVER.
The cases notified as scarlet fever were 749, as compared
with 390, 525, and 1,011, in the preceding three years successively,
viz., 513 in North Kensington and 236 in South Kensington.
The deaths were 29 ; and three below the corrected
decennial average (32); 28 and 1 in the Town and Brompton
sub-districts respectively. Nineteen of the deaths were of
children under five years of age: there was no death under
one year. Twenty-six of the deaths took place at outlying
public institutions, to which 561 cases were removed, and
three at home. The case-mortality was 3.9 per cent. (the
same as in 1896) ; viz., 4 6 per cent. in hospital cases and 1.6
per cent. in home cases.
The deaths in London, as a whole, were 780 (as compared
with 962, 829, and 942, in the preceding three years
successively) and were 314 below the corrected decennial
average (1,091). Of the 780 deaths 592 or 76 percent. took
place in public institutions. The cases notified numbered
22,876, as compared with 25,638 in 1896, 19,757 in 1895,
18,440 in 1894, and 36,901 in 1893. The mortality was 3.4
per cent. on cases notified, as compared with 3.7 in 1896; 4.1
in 1895 ; 5.2 in 1894, and 4.3 in 1893. The case-mortality in
hospitals (admissions 15,690, deaths 592), was 3.77 per cent.
These figures must be regarded as approximate.
The tables on page 30 show the degree of prevalence of the
disease in the parish, and in London, as a whole, in 1896 and
1897, as indicated by the number of notifications, and of
deaths registered, in thirteen successive four-weekly periods, as
set out in my reports: —