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Confident claims have also been made regarding a similar test in relation to scarlet
fever, known as the Dick test, which is being applied in America and in certain parts
of Great Britain, notably in Aberdeen, where the Schick and Dick tests, together
with the resultant inoculations of immunising fluid, where necessary, are being
simultaneously applied to young children.
Similarly in regard to measles, active research in being carried on in numerous
countries with a view to throwing further light on the aetiology of measles, and
encouraging results have already been obtained in America and elsewhere, in dealing
with measles, by the use of serum from convalescents and sheep, which has been
found to have a definite prophylactic and therapeutic value, although its use is
limited owing to the difficulty of obtaining the requisite supplies.
After many years of endeavour to deal with epidemic diseases by means of the
segregation of the sufferer in isolation hospitals and by improved methods of treatment,
medical science and public health bodies are realising more and more the
truth of the slogan that "prevention is better than cure," and whilst a definite
measure of success has attended the patient work of the pathologist and clinician
in this direction within recent times, in order that new discoveries mav be turned to
good account the co-operation of the public must be secured, and this can only
be effected by well directed and wise propaganda. The public must be made
to realise that the utilisation of such protective and precautionary measures as
are afforded by medical science against the epidemic diseases of childhood is
a civic, as well as a parental, duty and should be undertaken in the interests of
the individual and the community as a whole. Similarly, no effort should be spared
to bring home to the minds of the public the fundamental precautions necessary
in the case of dangerous infectious diseases of childhood, and the dangers associated
with their neglect, as for example, the need for the earliest possible administration
of anti-toxin by the doctor in the case of diphtheria, especially if there is any delay
in removal to hospital, and the proper medical and nursing care in the cases of such
diseases as measles and whooping cough, in order to prevent the fatal complications
which, in the absence of adequate precautions, so frequently supervene. The
enlightenment of the public should constitute the corner stone of all health campaigns,
and especially with regard to those preventable diseases of childhood which are not
only the cause of much suffering and mortality, but also affect the education of
young persons, and thus interfere with their future careers.

School
inspections
in connection
with
infectious
illness, 1926.
The diseases referred to in the above table are dealt with individually in the
following pages.
Both diphtheria and scarlet fever are controlled in the Council's schools by
means of the detection and exclusion from school of individual sufferers, suspects
and contacts of actual cases. The policy of school closure has for long been abandoned
and reliance is placed upon strict supervision and keeping the schools free from
infection as far as possible. For this purpose school teachers are provided with
a handbook of rules with regard to exclusion from school as well as general advice
as to the elementary precautions to be taken, and where there is evidence that