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The unvaccinated had to be detained on an average 60 days, the
doubtful cases 51 days, and the vaccinated only 38 days.
It is satisfactory to know that in an enlightened community such
as Glasgow, the only method of prevention which is certain is being
extensively practiced, and that vaccination and re-vaccination is
being largely resorted to.
MEASLES.
The Parish has now enjoyed nearly two years of comparative
freedom from Measles.
During the year the Vestry was approached by the London
County Council as to the advisability of including Measles in the
term "dangerous infectious disease," for the purposes of certain
sections of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891. The sections in
question deal with: (1) Power to compel removal of sufferers to
hospital; (2) power to compel cleansing and disinfection; (3) power
to prosecute for wilful exposure of infected persons and things; and (4)
power with regard to infectious dead bodies. The Metropolitan Asylums
Board has not made, and does not appear to intend to make any
provision for the isolation of Measles in hospitals, so that all cases of
Measles will continue to be nursed at home, and without hospital
provision for isolation the measures taken to prevent the spread of the
disease must necessarily prove incomplete. If, moreover, disinfection
be made compulsory upon recovery from Measles, the Sanitary
Authority will be called upon to face a considerable increase in the
cost of disinfecting, to enforce it, to prosecute in cases of nondisinfection
of infected rooms, things, parsons, or conveyances; and
also to see that the patient is isolated as effectually as possible.
Measles epidemics are mostly nurtured in the baby and infant
classes crowded together in schools. The ages of these children
range from 3 to 5 years. Upon the value of school teaching to infants
under 5 years of age there is little to be said, and I am of opinion that
the value of such school attendance does not compensate for the large
amount of infection spread and the fatal and maiming consequences
of such sickness among a goodly proportion of such frail sufferers.