View report page

25
SCAELET FEVER.
The 192 cases of Scarlet Fever occurred in houses in 6 of
which there were grave insanitary conditions : in 12 the insanitary
conditions were slight, and in the remaining houses there was an
absence of such conditions.
School attendance was ascribed as the origin of the infection in
9 cases ; and in three cases there were strong reasons for believing
that the infection was communicated by a patient recently dismissed
from a fever hospital. The infection was imported into the Borough
in 3 instances, and in 13 instances the infection was directly contracted
from a preceding case.
EEYSIPELAS.
The 50 cases of this disease represented infection in 48 different
premises. In one of these, grave insanitary conditions existed, and
in 2 the insanitary conditions were of a slight nature. Two cases
resulted from injury.
TYPHOID FEVER.
The 22 cases notified during the year all occurred in different
houses. In 3 of these houses grave insanitary conditions existed, and
in 1 the insanitary conditions were slight; while in the remaining 18
there were no insanitary conditions. 2 of the cases doubtless
contracted the disease outside of London during the summer and
autumn holidays. The evidence pointed strongly to the infection
having been derived from the eating of cockles in 2 instances and
to the consumption of oysters in another instance. The origin of
the infection remained quite obscure in the majority of cases, and in
many instances, as I pointed out in a previous Report, the patient
had been ailing for several weeks before he took to his bed and the
disease was diagnosed.
A Royal Commission is now turning its attention to the
important matter of the infection of shell-fish by sewage, and the
recent outbreak of Enteric Fever which followed the Municipal
banquets at Winchester and Southampton, will serve to arouse the
general public to a sense of the present dangers, and to bring about a
much-needed reform in the conditions under which shell-fish are
reared and maintained.