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26
ZYMOTIC DIARRHŒA.
In the Borough of Woolwich the Voluntary Notification of
Summer Diarrhoea during the Summer quarter has been in force for
the past four years. The Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sidney
Davies, reports that nearly 50 per cent. of all the cases have been
notified, that 14 per cent. of the sufferers are attacked with fatal
consequences, that breast.fed children show a marked protection
against the disease as compared those artificially fed, and that the
opportunity to get in contact with parents and offer advice, etc., was
of value in many cases. This scheme of voluntary notification of the
disease for the Summer quarter has also been adopted in the Town of
Huddersfield.
There was comparatively little prevalence of Summer Diarrhœa
during 1909, the meteorological conditions generally being unfavourable
to the development and spread of this disease. Although there
can be little doubt that flies may act as carriers of infection in respect
of this disease, the extent to which they operate as such is still sub
judice.
CANCER.
The returns for the whole country for 1908 show still further
increase as compared with past years in the mortality from malignant
disease, the rate among males being equal to 813 per 1,000,000 living
of that sex, or 4 per cent. more than in the previous year, whilst that
of females remained practically stationary at 1,027 per 1,000,000.
This tendency to exceptional increase in the mortality of males has
been noteworthy in the records of the last five years.
For the purpose of enabling the incidence of Cancer on the
several populations of the London sanitary areas to be more precisely
stated, factors have been calculated for correcting the death-rates, as
far as possible, for the differences in the age and sex constitution of
the several populations concerned. When these allowances are made
it is found that in the year 1908, St. Pancras(1.17) had the highest
rate, and that the lowest obtained in Fulham (0.79).