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removal of Measles to hospital. In Brighton, the Medical Officer of
Health recommended that he be authorised, so far as their accommodation
would permit, to admit cases of Measles which cannot be
properly treated at home. Some saving of life would, doubtless, be
secured by this means. I am afraid that here hospital accommodation
would not be practicable except on very rare occasions. During
the whole of the period that Measles was epidemic last year, our
hospital was required for the isolation of other diseases. In the
remote possibility that our hospital accommodation would permit it,
the Council might consider the desirability of isolating Measles in
exceptional circumstances.
WHOOPING COUGH.
Whooping cough was returned as the cause of 5 deaths. Measles
and Whooping Cough occur frequently in association with each
other. There is a difference of opinion as to the order of sequence
in which the two diseases occur in respect to each other. The
disease was most prevalent in the South-West Ward.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
It has been explained in previous reports that the infantile
mortality is usually expressed as the ratio of deaths in children under
one year of age to the total number of births registered.
It was stated on a former page that all the births belonging to
Acton are not registered within the district, and though an arrangement
is now made whereby all the deaths of residents occuring outside
the parish are included in the returns of this district, a like
system does not obtain in respect of the births. For instance, the
death of a child occurred in Queen Charlotte's Hospital within a
few hours of birth the death is included in the statistics for this
district, but the birth is not. A similar circumstance occurred at
th? Isleworth Infirmary. The outside deaths affect the Infantile
Mortality to the extent of 5 per 1,000.
One hundred and ninety-three deaths under one year of age
were registered in the district, and 8 infants under one year of age
died in public institutions beyond the district, making a total of 201.
This latter figure corresponds to an infantile mortality of 130 per
1.000 births, or a death-rate of 4 per r,ooo inhabitants.