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31
Of the above 9 cases one can say with a reasonable degree of
certainty, that four of them contracted the infection outside the
District. Of the remaining 5 cases, 2 were infected by direct contact
with the previous case, and in 3 the source of infection is not
known.
Generally speaking, the cases of Typhoid in adults in this district,
in previous years, contracted the disease outside the district
or from infected shell-fish, and the evidence has usually been fairly
conclusive as to where and how infection occurred. There have,
however, been a number of cases in children of school age where a
satisfactory explanation of the source of infection has not been
forthcoming. Cases 131 and 135 are types of this class.
In Case 135 the fact of paddling in the Chaffinch Brook has been
mentioned, and a similar history has been obtained in some of the
cases in previous years, "but not much weight has been given to it.
This Brook receives the effluent from the Croydon Sewage Farm
and during the greater part of 1920 the effluent was a very bad one
and caused a serious nuisance by its offensive odour; at times it was
little better than crude sewage. In such circumstances it is possible
that children paddling in the Brook might infect themselves with
Typhoid Bacilli. When pne considers that shell-fish from sewage
contaminated beds are liable to harbour Typhoid Bacilli it seems
reasonable to assume that the effluent from a sewage farm, particularly
such an effluent as was turned out in 1920 from the farm in
question, may contain living Typhpid Bacilli.
MEASLES.
The Lpcal Gpvernment Board Order of 1915, making Measles
and German Measles notifiable dijseases was cancelled by the
Recission Order of the Ministry pf Health, which came into force on
the first of January, 1920. The arrangements by which the School
Teachers, School Attendance Officers, etc., notify cases of measles