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16
In the autumn of this year three children of the same family succumbed
within twenty-four hours to Diphtheria in Euston Buildings, and an
inquest was held in the third case. Suspicion was directed to the water supply
and drainage, but incorrectly. It transpired, from searching inquiries made
by your Sanitary Department, that the cause of the outbreak was the advent of
a maid affected with the disease into the family. This maid, an aunt, brought
the disease with her from a house in Sutherland Gardens, Paddington, where
severe sore-throat had run its course successively through a number of children in
the same family, and upon dismissal from this house, the maid, not being
admissable into the Asylums Board's Hospital, slept at her married sister's, whose
three children she infected. It was established that the maid, before and after
leaving Sutherland Gardens, was suffering from a severe form of sore-throat, and
was attending as an out-patient at a general hospital. The Coroner's Jury sent a
recommendation to the Metropolitan Asylums Board, requesting them to admit
cases of Diphtheria into their hospitals, and after representations from the Society
of Medical Officers of Health, various Boards of Guardians and Sanitary Authorities,
the Metropolitan Asylums Board, with the approval of the Local Government
Board, incurred expenditure making provision for receiving and isolating
Diphtheria cases in their hospitals for the future.
CONTINUED FEVER.
One death only occurred from this disease, which is probably only a mild
form of enteric fever.
TYPHOID OR ENTERIC FEVER.
This disease was the cause of 57 deaths, the number for the previous year being
28, and for the decennium 25. The proportion per 1000 of total deaths being
12.3 against 52. for the preceding ten years. The increase in the mortality is
most apparent in Tables 8, A B and C in the Regent's Park, Somers Town and
Kentish Town Sub-Disticts, and the spot map shows the particular areas of these
Sub-Districts affected, and also the concentration of the cases that have occurred
in the Gray's Inn Lane Sub-District within a small area.
DIARRHOEA.
The 114 deaths registered as ultimately due to this disease were fewer in number
than in any year of the previous decennium, the cool summer being, probably,
unfavourable to the development of the disease.