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44 Medical Officers of Health Annual Report.
Very great advantage has been taken of hospital
accommodation in the treatment of the disease, 88 cases
having been removed, or 68.7 per cent, of the total. This
is rather below the proportion in the preceding year when
69.7 per cent, were removed.
It is not always possible to find definite sanitary
defects in cases of Diphtheria, but in 30 of the infected
houses, which were all carefully examined, serious
conditions were found. Drains were defective in 22,
cisterns dirty in 7, and walls wet in 1.
It should be added that in only two cases was a
certificate subsequently received from the hospitals
stating that the patient was not suffering from this
disease, thougn it is now a regulation of the Asylums
Board that the Medical Officer of Health shall be
notified from the hospitals when that is the case.
The provision of the Board for the examination
of material from suspected throats has not been largely
taken advantage of during the year, only four cases
having been examined of which two were reported to
be Diphtheria, and two not proved to be such.
Scarlet Fever.
There was no great diminution in the prevalence
of this disease in 1900, the number of
cases reported being If less than in 1899, and exactly the
same as in 1898. The table above shows that the
number of cases has not fallen below this figure in any
year since 1891. It would appear that this is the lowwater
mark even in non-epidemic years, in spite of the
efforts that are made to prevent it. This is a serious
matter from the point of view of interference with
education, if from no other point of view, as each case
represents an absence from school of many weeks. The
mortality is very small, only four deaths having occurred,