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would be due to fall somewhere between December 18th and
December 23rd.
As the interference with the work of the school would be
very slight, it was decided to close the department for the
Christmas Holidays on Friday, December 18th, instead of
December 23rd.
The names and addresses of all the children attending the
two classes were obtained, and the houses visited before the
school re-opened after the holidays.
Five cases of Measles were found, and these had sickened
after the closure of the school. The regulations for the
exclusion of children from premises where Measles existed
were observed, and no cases occurred in other houses.
It is true that the South Acton School was well protected,
as an outbreak of Measles had made its appearance amongst
its pupils in 1908, but as will be shown later, 64 cases were
reported from this school in June, 1909, and it was some
advantage to postpone the appearance of these cases for only
six months.
As far as our knowledge goes, this minor outbreak was
completely stamped out, and the second outbreak was the
result of a fresh introduction of the disease.
The second outbreak made its appearance towards the
end of February or the beginning of March. The earliest cases
were notified from Beaumont Park School, and during the first
week in March seven cases were reported. During the second
week in March only one case was reported from this school,
and in the fourth week 11 cases. The disease did not spread
very extensively amongst the children attending this school;
43 cases were reported in April and one each in July and
August. The explanation is probably to be found in the fact
that Beaumont Park and South Acton were the two schools
that suffered most severely from the epidemic of Measles in
1908.