View report page

32
should make a recommendation that in his opinion admission was desirable on the
grounds of sudden or urgent necessity, or for some other special or exceptional
reason.
In all 110 cases were removed to hospital for isolation and treatment during
the year.
Whooping Cough.
Information with regard to this disease is received from sources similar to
those in the case of measles.
Like measles it is most common and most fatal in early childhood. In the year
1911 the total number of deaths due to whooping cough was 30, nearly 25% fewer than
in 1910 when 41 deaths occurred.
All but 3 of the deaths took place in the age period 1-5, 13 occurring amongst
children aged less than 1 year ; of these 13, 3 were 3 months old, 2 more than 3 but
less than 6, and 8 between 6 and 12 months of age.
Lung complications are the commonest determining cause of death and these
can largely be prevented if the patient is sufficiently protected.
Isolation and treatment are as much required as in the case of measles and as
the result of arrangements made at the Metropolitan Asylums Board hospitals, 22
children suffering from whooping cough were removed to and provided with
accommodation in hospital.
Glanders.
No case of glanders in the human being was notified during the year and no
notices of outbreaks of the disease in stables in the borough were received from the
London County Council.
Polio-Encephalitis and Myelitis.
These are diseases of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), in which
as a result of an affection of the cells making up the tissue of which the brain and cord
are composed, certain symptoms of which the chief is paralysis of one or more parts of
the body are produced.
The paralysis varies in extent; it may be of one muscle or of a group or groups
of muscles : it may be slight and pass off almost completely ; it may be marked and
permanent, leaving one or more limbs useless. It may be so widespread as to cause
death.
The disease usually occurs in childhood and the term " infantile paralysis" is
commonly applied to it.
Formerly paralysis of, for example, a limb occurring suddenly in a child was
invariably put down to an accident, such as a fall from the arms of a mother or