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1908]
126

DIPHTHERIA.
Under this heading, in which is included Membranous Croup, 530 cases
were notified, as compared with 481 in the preceding year, and with a decennial
average of 601, on which there was thus a decrease of 71 cases.
Although this is so, yet the record is the least satisfactory since 1902,
when 877 cases were notified. The attack-rate for the year was equal to 1.49
per 1,000 inhabitants, while in the County of London it was 1.64.
In the first quarter of the year the disease was above the decennial average
in six of its weeks; in each week of the second quarter it was below the average,
while in the third quarter the average for the corresponding weeks was only
exceeded on four occasions. In the fourth quarter, it was exceeded on eight
occasions. Thus we see that the greatest incidence of the disease occurred in
the last mentioned period, when the attack-rate was 2 01 per 1,000, as compared
with 1.6 in the first quarter, 0.92 in the second, and 1.30 in the third.
The record of the disease from year to year is given in Table K in the
Appendix, but it may be of interest to note that in the quinquennium 1891-1895
the cases numbered 3,828; in that of 1896-1900 3,704; and in that of 1901-1905
2,942. During the last three years they were respectively 439, 481, and 530.
Fatality.—It is a noticeable and unsatisfactory part of the record of this
disease that the fatality was higher than that of any other year since 1902, for
there were 60 deaths out of the 530 cases notified, or 11-3 per cent. This
compares very unfavourably with that of the preceding year, when only 3.7 per
cent. of the cases died, while in 1906 the fatality was 7.3, in 1905 9.7, 1904 81,
and 1903 9.4.