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17
The most striking feature in this table is the great
diminution in the number of Small-Pox cases in the
whole of London (133 cases, as compared with 5060 in
the previous year); and we may add, the almost complete
absence of this disease during the latter half of the
year. The Scarlet Fever admissions were over 500
more than in the previous year. This is probably partly
due to a larger use of the isolation available in the
Asylums Board Hospitals, but also to a somewhat increased
prevalence of and mortality from the disease.
Thus in the Wandsworth District, 21 deaths from Scarlet
Fever occurred, as compared with 11 in the previous
year. The admission of 3 cases of Measles was doubtless
owing to mistaken diagnosis, as the Asylums Board
do not provide accommodation for cases of Measles, although
this is one of the most infectious and (indirectly
at least), fatal of zymotic diseases. Nor do the
Asylums Board admit cases of Diphtheria to their
hospitals, owing to a technical legal difficulty in including
this disease under the term 'Fever.;