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and in our own district every year kills more children than
Scarlet Fever, which is often looked upon with the greatest
alarm.
For disinfection we use the liquified Sulphurous Acid
Gas in tins. We find this a decided improvement on the old
fashioned method of burning the Sulphur.
DIPHTHERIA.
33 cases of this disease were reported, with 4 deaths.
The low mortality, 12.1 % is worthy of note when we compare
it with that of previous years. Last year the case mortality in
the district was 26 % and before this it had in some years been
as high as 40 %.
The results obtained this year correspond almost
identically with those in the hospitals of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board.
The wise action of the District Council in bearing the
expense of Bacteriological examination, has enabled practitioners
to avail themselves more freely of a means of accurate
diagnosis in cases of suspected Diphtheria, and although by
the use of this method some of the cases which would otherwise
have been notified as Diphtheria, have been proved not to be
such on examination, yet many others which but a few years
ago would have been diagnosed as cases of Follicular Tonsillitis
or Laryngitis have, by means of an adequate examination, been
proved to be cases of Diphtheria.
That the more accurate diagnosis by the Bacteriological
method has swelled or diminished the total number of cases
notified may be open to question. In this connection I may