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10
lived was infective six weeks after his death. This shows how
necessary it is to have rooms that have been occupied by Consumptive
people thoroughly disinfected. This fact will in time
become generally known and when it is also known that disinfection
of the premises will be carried out by employees of the
Board free of charge, I have no doubt it will be always done.
To go further and include it in the list of notifiable Infectious
Diseases and strictly isolate every person suffering from Phthisis
is in my opinion absurd, and would be an unjustifiable expense.
Far more good can be done by establishing open air Sanatoria,
which has been strongly advocated lately, and to give Medical
Practitioners leaflets, containing a few simple directions as to the
mode of disposal of the sputum, &c., to be distributed amongst
their Consumptive patients. I may remind you that this was
done by your Board in the early part of 1897.
During the year 461 notifications were received, of which
191 referred to Scarlet Fever, 134 to Diphtheria, 2 to Membranous
Croup, 90 to Erysipelas, 1 to Puerperal Fever, and 42 to
Typhoid Fever; of these 136 cases of Scarlet Fever, 94 cases
of Diphtheria, 26 cases of Erysipelas, and 28 cases of Enteric
Fever were removed to Hospital. This is by far the smallest
number of notifications of Infectious Diseases received in one
year since the year when notifications were made compulsory.
For the sake of comparison, I give the number in each year —
In 1892 the number of notifications was 771
1893 „ „ „ 1298
1894 „ „ „ 719
1895 „ „ „ 755
1896 „ „ „ 764
1897 „ „ „ 754
1898 „ „ „ 461
This satisfactory reduction happened in spite of the water
famine. During the time that the District was supplied for four
hours a day only (from September 3rd to December 12th), watercarts
distributed water through all the streets. The water was
stored in jars supplied by the East London Water Company and
the Evening News. Nearly 4,300 jars were given away. Bills
were posted throughout the District to the effect that notice of
a stopped drain should be immediately given to the Board of