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1ll
Parish of Wandsworth.
virulence of the outbreaks it will be necessary to give
some particulars with reference to them. In Ward 1
sporadic cases of Diphtheria had occurred during 1896,
27 cases having been notified in that year at intervals of
from 14 to 30 days. Most of the cases were exceptionally
mild. In January, 1897, however, 8 cases were
notified with 3 deaths, 5 of the cases occurring in one
family, 2 of these proving fatal. The causation of these
5 cases is important as showing a certain connexion
between this outbreak and the one at Roehampton in
the adjoining parish of Putney, which had occurred in
the months of October and November, 1896. One of
the children affected attended a school in Roehampton,
at which all the children affected there were scholars,
while the other four children attended the hoard school
in Ward 1 of this parish. During the month of February,
20 cases were notified with 7 deaths, and in March, 17
with 2 deaths. The total number of cases in the Ward
was 45, 25 males and 20 females, with 12 deaths, a percentage
of 26.5. These 45 cases occurred in twenty-three
households; in four households 5 cases occurred in each;
in six, 2 cases; and in thirteen, 1 case. In this Ward
there are two schools, one a board school and the other
a national school, and of the twenty-three households
affected the first cases occurred in thirteen households in
children attending the national school, in nine the board
school, and in two households the children infected had
not been to any school. At first it was difficult to
localise the school in which infection took place, as in a
preliminary inquiry it was found that the cases occurred
in both schools at varying intervals and among children
who did not in school associate with one another. In
the board school an examination of the cases showed that
10 attended the infant department, 3 the girls' and 2 the
boys' departments. In the infant department the first
three cases were members of the same family, and none