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ENTERIC FEVER. 17
Comparing the corrected mortality rates (Table 15) it is seen that the local rate for last
year was higher than any of the rates for the adjoining districts but equal to that for the
Metropolis. The rates for the Metropolis, Paddington, Hampstead and Willesden were above
the respective means, in the other districts below. The greatest proportional increased (100
per cent.) was recorded in Hampstead.

ENTERIC FEVER.
Thirty-one cases of enteric fever and one of continued fever (always regarded as the
same disease for the purpose of these reports) were reported during the past year, making a
total of 32 cases, or three fewer than the totals recorded in 1906 and 1907 (35 each year).
The morbidity rate was 0*20 per 1,000 persons, 0*02 less than the rate for 1907 and 0*07 less
than the mean (1903-07).
It will be seen from Table 5 that the local rate was lower than any of the rates recorded
in the Metropolis and districts adjacent to the Borough. In every case except Hampstead
(where the rate for last year, 0*26, was equal to the mean) last year's rate was below
the mean.
Taking the cases as reported, the only Wards showing higher numbers last year than in
the preceding are Lancaster Gate, West, and Hyde Park. Those figures are, however,
somewhat misleading, as no fewer than 9 out of the 32 reported cases, with a possible
other 3, were erroneously diagnosed. The percentage of mistakes was 28T last year, more
than double the average for the preceding five years (12*8). The case of continued fever
was one of broncho-pneumonia, and all the cases of enteric fever reported from Lancaster
Gate, West, Ward were erroneously so diagnosed. Seven cases, not including any of the
errors of diagnosis, were believed to have been contracted outside the Borough, so that there
remained only 13 cases which could be attributed to local infection. Some of the patients in
the latter category worked and took their meals outside the Borough. In five instances
histories were obtained of the consumption of shell-fish within the limits of infection, one
patient also having had fried fish. In one case there was a history of eating water-cress.
In no case was it possible to trace any source of contamination of any of those food-stuffs.