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It will be seen that correction for difference in the age and sex constitution of the population in
five groups of districts diminishes the difference between the cancer death-rates of these groups ; similar
correction of the phthisis death-rates emphasises the differences, and in the case of phthisis, in marked
contrast with the case of cancer, the incidence of mortality closely follows the overcrowding.
Bubonic Plague.
During the year 1904 in no instance was any case of suspected bubonic plague brought to the
notice of the Public Health department of the Council.
Anthrax.
During the year four deaths were registered from this cause. Nine cases of this disease during
the year occurred in Bermondsey, and all the sufferers but one were employed in work which brought
them into relation with foreign hides, in two instances with Cape goat-skins. One man worked at a
contractor's dealing mostly with provisions, and is not known to have been associated with hides.
Glanders.
Two deaths occurred from glanders. One of the deaths was that of a man who had been employed
as a farrier at stables where 400 horses were kept. Ten days before his attack a horse in the
stables, suffering from glanders, had been slaughtered. The other that of a horsekeeper.
Infectious Disease in Relation to the Age of Attendance at School.
Since attention has been directed to the extent to which infectious disease is spread by school
attendance, suggestion has been made that young children should be protected against this risk by
being excluded from school, and recently definite proposals have been put forward that children under
five years of age should be excluded from public elementary schools. The extent to which exclusion from
school of children under five years of age in London would reduce infectious disease in the London
population may be considered in respect of two diseases to the prevalence of which school attendance
undoubtedly contributes, and cases of which are notified, viz., diphtheria and scarlet fever. During
the last ten years the decline in the prevalence of these diseases during the August holiday has been
pointed out in these reports, a decline which was most marked among children of the school age, and
which was often observed to be manifested among children in the pre-school age, and in persons above
school age, a week later than it was manifested among school-attending children, suggesting that a considerable
proportion of the persons who suffer from these diseases at those ages receive their infection from
children who have themselves been infected in school. The diminution of these diseases in August at
several ages will be seen by reference to diagram XX., which is based on the number of cases
notified in London in the ten years 1895.1904.