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that at the time of removal the other members of the family will be
immunized by sub-reacting doses of the parasite, and that the
longer the case is retained the weaker will be this primary immunization.
At the present time the return case is almost entirely a hospital
phenomenon, but that is because a case is nearly always removed
to hospital if there are any children or susceptible persons in
the house. If a case is nursed at home, it is usually an only child.
It is therefore unfair to compare the figures because the conditions
are entirely different. Some years ago, when a fair percentage of
cases were nursed at home, in one of the annual reports I worked
out the figures based upon the number of susceptible persons in the
house, and these showed that there was practically no difference
between hospital and home treated cases. At the present time for
the reasons stated above, it is almost impossible to make a comparison.
Measles.
Eleven deaths occurred from Measles during the year. Since
the War measles in this district has been a less fatal disease. Part
of this improvement had been due to the altered age incidence of the
population ; this will be referred to in a later paragraph.
During the last 25 years measles in Acton has occurred in
regular periods. This, of course, has been the experience of most
other towns. But our experience has been different to other towns
if a longer period still is taken into consideration. During the past
55 years there have been 4 distinct, eras as far as periodicity is concerned.
As these periods form an interesting study in the epidemiology
of measles I am giving these in different columns.
Year. Deaths. Year. Deaths. Year. Deaths. Year. Deaths.
1879 01892 24 1906 27 1910 1
1880 0 1893 2 1907 20 1911 44
1881 3 1894 15 1908 38 1912 0
1882 3 1895 6 1909 40 1913 25
1883 2 1896 24 1914 0
1884 1 1897 2 1915 2
1885 25 1898 6 1916 11
1886 3 1899 0 1917 39
1887 8 1900 16 1918 7