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The latest ideas upon exclusion from school 011 account of measles are
contained in a Memorandum of the Local Government Board and tlic Reof the London County Council as quoted below:—
"'Ihe Memorandum on Closure of and Exclusion from School," issued
jointly by the Medical Officers of the Local Government Board and of the
Board of Education, September, 1909, runs as follows:—
B.—Rui.es for the exclusion of individuals.
(1) As regards children suffering from the disease.
48.—Children attacked by measles should be kept from school for four
weeks.
(2) As legards other children living in infected houses.
49. —In largo towns, and in the smaller districts in which the majority of
children over seven years of age who are attending public elementary
schools have had measles, the practice is frequently adopted,
when measles breaks out in a household, of excluding from school
attendance only those children of the same household who attend the
iufants' schools and those older children of the same household who
have not had measles. These particular children of the same household
should be excluded from school until 21 days from the date of
onset of the illness of the last patient with measles in the house.
The Regulations for the exclusion of children from school adopted by the
Education Department of the London County Council are as follows:—
Measles.
1.—Children suffering from the disease:—
Exclusion for at least one month.
2. — Children living in houses* where the disease exists:—
Infants.—All infants to be excluded until M nday following 14 days
from the occurrence of last case.
Srniers.—If child has had the disease, not to be excluded. If child
has not had the disease, exclude until Monday following 14 days
from occurrence of first case.
* Note.—a self-contained and air-approac-hed flat is regarded as a separate
house, but a one-floor dwelling in an ordinary tenement house is
not so regarded, all the dwellings in an ordinary tenement house
occupied by two or more families are regarded as one house.
In addition to the above Regulations the Medical Officer now orders the
exclusion for a variable number of days (4 to 14) of all children under 5 years
unprotected by a previous attack of measles.
The value of this measure is dependent upon the statements of parents
and the powers of the diagnosis of mothers, and a number of children who
have not had the disease will be credited with having had it. It must be
difficult for a mother to distinguish between measles, German measles, roseola,
erv'hema, stomach rash, and other rashes, and difficult to resist the impulse
to attribute the rash to measles when she wishes the child to go to school. So