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46
who are under 5 years of age may be refused admission to that
school." Many Educational Authorities have wisely decided to adopt
this course.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board, towards the end of the year
1910, provided for the isolation and treatment of a limited number
of poor-law cases of Measles and Whooping Cough where the home
conditions were very unfavourable to the child. At periods, when such
accommodation is available, the isolation of carefully selected cases
should prove a useful measure in the reduction of the fatality-rate of
these diseases.
The Medical Officer of Health for the London County Council
(Sir Shirley Murphy) finds that the death-rate from Measles among
those children who lived in one-roomed tenements was 7 to 8 times
greater than among those who lived in four or five-roomed
houses. If some of the children of the former class could be provided
with hospital accommodation and treatment, it can hardly be
doubted that they would have a far better chance of recovery than
if they remained in their own homes; and if this provision may be
counted upon there would be an unquestionable advantage in
making the disease compulsorily notifiable in epidemic times.
During the year I was asked to report to the Public Health
Committee as to whether the recent Regulation of the London County
Council in respect to the compulsory school attendance of children
from houses in which the infection of Measles exists, has led to any
increased prevalence of this disease.
The Regulation alluded to has been in operation only
for a year or two. It is to the effect that, whereas all
children attending the infant departments of Elementary Schools
must be excluded from school attendance whenever there is
a case of Measles in their homes, children above the infant
class shall be required to continue their school attendance in these
cases, if they have already suffered from the complaint. It is
within the knowledge of the reader that, prior to this Regulation,
all children were excluded from school if they came from homes in