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6 cases in one family it was almost certain that the food of the family
had been contaminated by one of them who had suffered from an
unrecognised attack of enteric fever a few months before, and whose duty
it was to prepare the food of the family.
MEASLES.
This disease has again exacted a very heavy toll in the year under
consideration. The number of deaths is not so high as in the two years
immediately preceding, but it is a very serious mortality and represents
between four and five thousand cases. Given a room of a 1,000 cubic
feet of air space with a lighted fire and the windows partly open and the
patient in bed with warm covering, no child ought to die of measles. It
is the child in the overcrowded tenement who succumbs, the victim of
poverty and, in many instances, of the ignorance of the mother.
Deaths from Measles during the last ten years:—
1904 191 1909 127
1905 154 1910 225
1906 95 1911 120
1907 112 1912 139
1908 77 1913 105
WHOOPING COUGH.
This disease, although notifiable in some metropolitan boroughs, is
not notifiable in Southwark. Like measles it is a complaint difficult to
recognise at its very commencement. It is not so amenable to treatment
as measles and in certain nervous children it is a grave disease. There
are certain well known methods of treatment but a well ventilated,
moderately warmed room of fair size is necessary for the patient.
The deaths from this disease were 38 for the year.
The annual death-rate per 1,000 living was 0 20.
Deaths from Whooping Cough for the last ten years:—
1904 118 1909 57
1905 80 1910 60
1906 54 1911 64
1907 103 1912 49
1908 50 1913 38