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15
District.
by the proportionate number of deaths, which give a rate
of 2.5 per hundred cases; whereas in 1893, when also
there was a considerable epidemic, the rate was 4.0.
The feature of the Scarlet Fever of last year, besides its
mildness, was its more even distribution throughout the
year, varying only from a minimum of 57 cases in June
to a maximum of 113 in November. There were 95 cases
in the first month of the year and 94 in the last. The
difficulty as to hospital accommodation, to which we referred
in our last report, was largely overcome in 1897,
the new buildings opened by the Metropolitan Asylums
Board having proved sufficient to relieve the pressure to
a large extent. There was not an entire absence of delay
in effecting the removal of patients, but it was much less
than in 1896. Of the total cases, 660 were removed to
hospital, or 65 percent., a higher percentage than we
have had in any year previously; last year the figure
was 55.5 per cent. The deaths at their homes were 7, and
at the hospitals 19, the percentage mortality being 1.9
and 2.8 respectively.
Diphtheria and
Membranous
Croup.
There were 569 cases of Diphtheria and 7 of
Membranous Croup reported during the year.
This is considerably in excess of the number in any year
since notification has been in force. As is seen by looking
at Table IX., the greatest proportion occurred in the subdistricts
of Streatham and Wandsworth, and in the
reports for those parishes reference will be found to the
great influence schools have had in spreading it. The
deaths were, from Diphtheria, 103, and from Membranous
Croup, 3. These are the highest figures on record,
except in 1893, when the deaths were 116 (99 from Diphtheria
and 17 from Membranous Croup), and exceed the
corrected decennial average by 42. These should be
taken together, as there is every reason to believe that
they are essentially the same disease, and only differ in
the locality affected. The case mortality works out at