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17
District.
Erysipelas.
The notifications were 238, or a decrease on
last year. The deaths were 4, the smallest
number in the ten years.
Measles.
This was not an epidemic year for this disease,
for only 28 deaths were attributed to it. As
compared with 154 deaths in 1896, there has been a
great saving of life from this cause, but this cannot be
set down to any special action on the part of sanitary
officials, but simply to the natural history of Measles.
So large a proportion of the children suffered from it in
1896 that there was but little available material for it to
spread by in 1897. In spite of this fact, it will be
noticed that there were more deaths from Measles than
from Scarlet Fever, and this furnishes a reason for greater
efforts being made to check the spread of it. It is a
common, but most unfortunate, article of belief with
many people that all children are of necessity obliged to
have an attack of Measles, and that, when they have it,
it is likely to be a trivial matter. This naturally leads
to much carelessness and even wanton exposure of children
to the infection. Anything that could be done to
disabuse the public of these ideas would be in the right
direction, and we therefore think that the recent proposal
to apply the provisions of the Public Health (London)
Act relating to ''dangerous infectious diseases" to Measles
would be of some possible advantage.
Whooping
Cough.
There were 41 deaths from this cause, as in
the case of Measles, an enormous fall from
the previous year. These zymotic illnesses are nearly
always associated with each other in epidemics, and the
above remarks apply equally to Whooping Cough.
Influenza.
There were 49 deaths, as against 37 in the
previous year. Excepting for 1896 the deaths
were fewer than in any year since this malady has been
epidemic,
c