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70
OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM.
The number of cases of this disease notified in 1938 was 4, and information
with regard to these is given in Table 44. Ten cases were notified in 1937. Visits
were paid to the cases by the health visitors, and where necessary arrangements
were made for a nurse from the Paddington and St. Marylebone District Nursing
Association to attend and apply treatment. During the year the nurses paid 82
visits to three cases. Where the condition is serious, removal to hospital is carried
out, special arrangements having been provided at St. Margaret's Hospital for
receiving and dealing with children suffering from this condition.

INFLUENZA.
This disease was less prevalent than in 1937, though correct information as
to the number of cases was, of course, unobtainable. The district nurses paid 43
visits to 10 cases. The deaths certified as due to influenza numbered 10 as against
44 in the previous year.
PNEUMONIA.
Notifications of this disease numbered 24. The services of the nurses were
requisitioned in 11 cases. The number of deaths certified as due to all forms of this
disease was 70.
FOOD POISONING.
Three notifications of food poisoning or suspected food poisoning were received
during the year. Various foodstuffs came under suspicion, but no definite evidence
as to the responsibility of these articles was obtainable. All those affected quickly
recovered.
PSITTACOSIS.
During March, cases of psittacosis (parrot disease) occurred at the Zoological
Gardens. Exhaustive pathological investigations were carried out on parrots that
died or were destroyed, but actually in only three instances was it possible to declare
with any degree of certainty that they had suffered from the disease.
Complement fixation tests on the blood serum of five attendants suspected of
psittacosis infection were found to be strongly positive, and one patient unfortunately
died. Immediately on the occurrence of the outbreak, all necessary steps were
taken, including the closure of the parrot house, etc. At a conference on the 25th
May, 1938, with representatives of the staff of the Zoological Society and the Ministry
of Health, all the circumstances were fully considered and reviewed, and on the
15th June, 1938, when the period of isolation extending over three months had
elapsed, permission was given for the parrot house to be reopened. As a further
measure of safety and with the object of preventing a possible recurrence of the
disease, instructions were given that, in future, all consignments of parrots or other
birds liable to infection with psittacosis should be quarantined for a period of at
least three months in a special building situated at some distance from the Gardens,