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be closed towards the end of the incubation period. It is doubtful
whether this would be very effective, and even this modified
Procedure was not adopted during the recent epidemic.
The first cases were reported in January, but these were not
school children. Cases in the school did not occur until late in the
Spring term. The disease had not become general in any of the
departments before the Easter holidays. With the closure of the
schools for the Easter holidays, there was a slight break in the spread
of the disease. More cases were reported from the schools when
they were reopened for the summer term, and cases were recorded
iss all the schools almost until the time the schools were closed for
the summer holidays.
One peculiarity which we noticed, and I believe was also
noticeable in the London epidemic, was—the epidemic took a longer
time to reach its peak and to spread throughout the district. This
may have been due to the fact that the Easter holidays occurred
early in the outbreak and affected its course. At any rate
Cases cropped up until the schools closed for the summer holidays
Returning to the tables another interesting feature in the
figures appears in the sudden drop in the morbidity of measles
which occurerd 20 years ago. It is difficult to measure the mortality
from measles. Owing to the altered age incidence of the population
on account of the declining birth rate, it would not be a fair
comparison if the number of deaths were assessed as a proportion
of the population. If this method were adopted a very great imProvement
could be recorded, but such figures would be useless
because the incidence of measles in Acton is almost entirely among
children under 10 years of age ; a fairer way would be to assess the
mortality on the basis of the number of births. If we take a fairly
large number of years this method is not liable to a high margin of
error.
An examination of the table giving the number of deaths in
last 55 years shows that this may be divided into4 periods, viz.:—
1879-1888; 1888-1905; 1905-1913'; and 1914-1934. The births
and deaths from measles in these periods were as follows:—
Period
Total births
Deaths from
Measles
Deaths from
Measles per
1,000 births
1879-1888 7042 44 6.24
1889-1905 16364 201 12.29
1905-1913 12012 195 16.23
1914-1934 23616 112 4.74