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Measles was, by Order of the London County Council,
dated January 20th, 1903, placed within the category of
"Dangerous Infectious Diseases"—a suggestion originally
made to the London County Council by the late Vestry of
Lambeth on March 1st, 1900, and endorsed by the Lambeth
Borough Council on January 24th, 1901, and adopted by the
London County Council on November 8th, 1902, the necessary
Order being made by the London County Council on
January 20th, 1903 (coming into force on April 1st, 1903).
The attendance of children under 5 years of age at school
is to be regretted from the point of view of the spread of
measles—children of that age-period swelling the morbidity
and mortality statistics of that particular disease (see tables
in the Appendix).
Whooping Cough.
Whooping Cough is also a serious disease, especially to
young children. Of the 54 deaths registered in Lambeth
Borough during 1910 from this disease, 50 (i.e., 92.6 per
cent.) occurred in children under 5 years of age, and 20 of
the deaths (i.e., 37.04 per cent.) occurred amongst infants
under 1 year of age. It is, therefore, a disease of childhood,
and its prevention is being systematically attempted, chiefly
in the way of disinfection of Whooping Cough-infected
houses, exclusion from school of children (both infected and
from infected houses), and the educating of parents up to the
dangerous nature of the disease and the importance of careful
nursing of the patients when suffering from this complaint.
Unfortunately, Whooping Cough, like Measles, is, at
present, regarded as a harmless complaint of childhood, and
the ignorance displayed, and the apathy shown, in regard to
these diseases are well known to all who visit amongst the
poorer classes.
During 1910, in the Borough of Lambeth, disinfection has
been carried out in connection with 686 Whooping Cough-inf'ected
houses as compared with 761, 319, 748, 455, 440, 380,