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27
The measles epidemic taxed the resources of the Health
Department very heavily, as may be imagined from its extent.
Nevertheless enquiry was made into every case, and particulars
obtained, and in Mitcham and Merton many revisits were paid to
infected houses. House to house enquiries were made in certain
to discover unreported cases, and while the schools remained
streets open, lists of absentee children were obtained from the
teachers, and their houses visited for the same reason. It was
by these means that so many unreported cases came to be
known. Nearly 1,000 visits were paid to houses in connection
with this disease.
The failure of a number of householders to notify cases of
measles was reported to the Committee, but no steps were
taken to enforce the Act by the prosecution of those in default,
and in a case of exposure of a patient while in an infectious
condition, an apology by the parents was considered sufficient.
Circulars were widely circulated—one of advice to parents
how to manage the disease and prevent its spread, such as was
distributed in 1894, and another calling special attention to the
requirements of the Notification Act—but it is impossible to say
that they were followed by the exercise of greater care, or more
general notification (except in Coulsdon). The public seem to
have an ineradicable indisposition to regard measles seriously,
and one of the medical practitioners in Mitcham states that in
his opinion the mortality from this cause was almost entirely due
to gross carelessness.
The effect of school-closure will be seen on reference to the
tables in the appendix, but it is a moot point whether this step
was taken early enough. It is very difficult to decide exactly
when such a step ought to be taken, and there is always
a disposition to put it off as long as possible. Its effect in
Mitcham was marred by the occurrence of a number of summer
school treats and other entertainments which it was hopeless to
stop, and by the continued assembling of Sunday Schools, over