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50
WHOOPING COUGH.
Hospital Isolation.—Until the Local Government Board made their Order in May, 1911, the
only institutional treatment available for patients suffering with measles was that afforded by
the Poor Law Infirmary. Since May, 1911, the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board
have been open to cases of the disease, but the admission is not unrestricted. Poor Law patients
are admitted as a matter of routine, subject to accommodation being available, but non-pauper
patients are only received on the special recommendation of the Medical Officer of Health,
and certain particulars as to the home conditions of the patients, the number of children in the
family who have not had the disease, &c., are asked for. Last year 103 cases were admitted
to the Board's hospitals, as compared with 74 in 1912. The admissions constituted 8.3 per ccnt.
of the known cases, as compared with 54 per cent. in 1911 and 1912. The Board found themselves
obliged to suspend the admission of non-pauper cases between April 11th and 26th, but
such suspension did not affect the number of admissions from the Borough, as there happened to
be no applications.
There were 14 deaths during the year from measles in the Board's hospitals, which would
represent a fatality of 13.6 per 100 admissions, as compared with 39 among the patients
kept at home. It has to be remembered, however, that the patients admitted to the Board's
hospitals are selected chiefly on account of the home conditions being unsatisfactory or the
serious condition of the patient, both factors productive of a high fatality. As appears from
the appended figures, the fatalities at home and in hospital were higher in 1913 than in
1912 or 1911—the only years for which comparative figures are available.

During the five years 1903-7 there were 194 deaths due to measles, 23 of which (or 11.8
per cent.) occurred in institutions. In the following five years (1908-12) there were 229 deaths,
55 (or 24 0 per cent.) being recorded in institutions. Last year 28 out of the 59 deaths (47-3 per
cent) were institutional deaths.
WHOOPING COUGH.
The statistics of this disease have been prepared on the same lines as those of measles, but
considerable doubt is felt as to the completeness with which cases are reported. There is also a
strong suspicion that a good many cases of pulmonary catarrh, associated with a cough of a
more or less spasmodic type, are reported as "whooping cough" when they should not be.
Last year the reported cases numbered, according to the weekly tabulation, 653, which
figure was reduced to 644 at the annual scrutiny and analysis. There has been an increase
in the numbers reported during the last four years, but the signficance attaching thereto does
appear to be the same as in the case of measles. The comparatively large number of cases
reported during the third (holiday) quarter of the past year is unusual. (See below.)