View report page

16
of the skin during the latter weeks of Scarlatinal Convalescence.
Dr. \V. J. Simpson who has made investigations at the request of the
Metropolitan Asylums Board, found that only in 2.7 per cent. was there
any reason to suspect desquamation of the skin as the cause of secondary
infection, whereas 80 per cent. of the primary infective cases were
connected with discharges from the mucous membranes of the nose and
mouth, and that these discharges are probably the carriers of infection.
The Medical Officer of Health should be notified as to the discharge
of a patient from hospital, and printed instructions should be given
to the parents, in order that suitable precautions can be taken in the
home.
SMALL POX.
Two cases (a male and female) occurred in an old-fashioned
ill-ventilated house in the town. The first patient, the female, contracted
the disease in Town. She had never been vaccinated. The
male sickened a few days afterwards, and had the disease mildly
compared with the female; he was supposed to have been vaccinated
when an infant.
The patients were removed within an hour or so of the notification
of the disease, to the Small Pox Hospital, at Barnet. Both recovered.
The premises underwent thorough disinfection.
DIPHTHERIA.
Twenty-eight cases were notified against forty-nine in 1899. There
were four deaths, against seven in the preceding year.
The antitoxin for this disease is now used by nearly every
practitioner in the district. I continue as before to keep a supply ready
for immediate use from the Jenner Institute.
It is most important to inject early, and not to wait till the disease
assumes a severe form. It is said that it is impossible to give a fatal
over-dose.