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8
Chicken-pox was made notifiable in several metropolitan boroughs for varying
periods, and at the end of the year was notifiable in Paddington, Chelsea, Westminster,
Islington, Stoke Newington, Hackney, City of London, Bethnal Green, Stepney,
Poplar, Lambeth, Deptford and Woolwich.
Measles.
The deaths from measles in 1930 totalled 1,027, compared with 206 in 1929.

It will be noted that the epidemic of 1930 was less severe than in 1928 and
reached a maximum later than the epidemics of 1928 and 1926.
Whooping
cough.
There were 128 deaths from whooping-cough in London during 1930 compared
with 1,141 in 1929. The death-rate, 003 per thousand, was the lowest recorded in
London.
Scarlet
fever.
There were 16,699 cases of scarlet fever notified in 1930 (53 weeks), the
corresponding figure for 1929 being 15,855 (52 weeks). The attack-rate was 3 7 per
thousand as against 36 in 1929.
The deaths numbered 112, giving a death-rate of 0'03 per thousand of population
at all ages, and a case mortality of 0'7 per cent.
Diphtheria.
The notified cases of diphtheria numbered 13,411 in 1930 (53 weeks) compared
with 11,788 (52 weeks) in 1929. This gives an attack-rate of 3'0 per thousand, as
against 2.7 in the preceding year.
There were 452 deaths, as against 350 in 1929. The case mortality was 33 per
cent. The case mortality from diphtheria has fallen markedly since 1922, and in
the report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1926, pages 12-13, it was suggested
that the decrease was associated with the memorandum issued in the autumn of 1922
by the Ministry of Health stressing the importance of immediate use of antitoxin,
further emphasised by a letter to the medical Press in 1923 making it clear that the
late Metropolitan Asylums Board welcomed the use of antitoxin by the certifying
practitioner before sending cases into a hospital of the Board.
The increase in 1930, although very slight, may possibly indicate that the effect
of the steps referred to—especially apparent during 1923, 1924 and 1925—has
diminished.
Diarrhoea
and Enteritis.
Diarrhœa and enteritis caused 687 deaths among children under two years of
age, or 9.89 per thousand births. The corresponding rate in 1929 was 1096.
Puerperal
fever and
Pyrexia.
There were 293 notifications of puerperal fever and 740 of puerperal pyrexia in
1930 (53 weeks) compared with 312 and 758 respectively, in 1929 (52 weeks). The
deaths from puerperal sepsis numbered 134, and from other accidents of childbirth 97;
the deaths per 1,000 births 1.93 and 1.40, respectively; a total of 3.33.
The death-rates from puerperal fever and other accidents of childbirth per
thousand births in each metropolitan borough in the periods 1920-1927, and 19281930,
together with the deaths in childbirth in 1930, are shown in the following
table:—