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39
infected, cabled instructions to their representatives that they should he
destroyed on arrival. I also advised the Colonial Office. Twelve
blankets had been sent by another firm into two other boroughs, and
the officials were duly informed. The remainder, 84 in number, were
secured, disinfected by steam, and returned to their owners. No marks
of staining were observed, but some blankets which had not been used
were found to be very dusty. No bad results occurred among the
persons who had been handling these blankets.
Bacteriological Examination.—Advantage was taken of the Council's
arrangement with the Lister Institute in seventeen instances: to have a
drop of blood from a suspected case examined; in seven cases a positive
result was obtained (the reaction is not always obtained early in the
disease), but none of the others were eventually notified as typhoid fever
Enteric Fever and Watercress.—A copy of a report by the Medical
Officer of Health of Hackney, on the subject of Enteric Fever and
Watercress, was considered by the Council, together with the following
recommendations thereon adopted by them
" 1. That the Local Government Board should be asked to make an
inquiry as to the sources of the watercress supplied to the
metropolis in relation to the possibility of this article causing
disease.
" 2. That copies of the report of the Medical Officer of Health
should be forwarded to all Metropolitan Borough Councils
and the London County Council, and that they be asked to
support the applications made by the Borough of Hackney
to the Local Government Board.
" 3. That a copy of the report be sent to the County Borough of
West Ham, and their attention drawn to the manner in
which watercress is grown in that borough, and that they be
requested to adopt such measures as may be necessary to
ensure that such watercress shall be free from pollution."
The Council concurred in these views, and addressed a communication
on the lines suggested to the Local Government Board.
(3) Non-notifiable Diseases.
Measles.—Forty-seven deaths were attributed to this cause in 1903
in the City, but probably a large proportion of the fifty deaths from
broncho-pneumonia, at the same age periods, originated in measles.
With one exception all the deaths in Westminster were in children
under five years of age, Beckoned on the number of children living at
this period, the death-rates for measles are:—