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The use of hospitals.
Reference to diagram XI. shows that as in the case of scarlet fever there was a slight decrease
in the proportion of the cases of diphtheria which were admitted into, and the proportion of deaths which
occurred in, the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1895, as compared with 1894. In
1895 the number of cases of diphtheria admitted into these hospitals was 3,635, or 32.4 per cent, of
the total cases notified, and the number of deaths occurring in these hospitals was 820, or 35.8 per
cent, of the total deaths registered in London from this disease.
Diphtheria and elementary schools.
As in previous years, I have shown, in diagrammatic form, the number of cases of diphtheria
notified in each week of the year 1895 in relation to the mean of that year (see diagram XII.), and it
will be seen that there was considerable diminution in the amount of diphtheria prevalence in the
month of August, when, apart from some disturbing influence, it might have been expected that the
prevalence would have been increasing; this diminution in August has also been pointed out in
connection with scarlet fever. As in some previous years the diminution of prevalence among children
under three years of age occurs somewhat later than that among children of school age, suggesting
that the decrease among infants resulted from diminished opportunity of infection from older children.
The holidays of the London School Board schools began at noon, Thursday, 25th July, or the
latter part, of the 30th week, and the schools reopened on Monday, August 26th, or the beginning of
the 35th week.