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18
Water Supply of the Cases Notified:—•
CROYDON 171
LAMBETH 95
Cases brought to Public Institutions in the
Borough from outside Districts 4
Total 270
Concerning the Notified Cases, the following facts were ascertained :—
Suffering from other diseases, and not enteric
fever 36
Home case, diagnosis subsequently amended 1
Infected outside the Borough 43
Probably infected Dy shellfish, watercress, &c. 32
Infected from other cases 29
,, while unstopping ot drains 1
„ by overflow of sewer 1
Total 143
Source of illness not traced 127
Of the 127 cases, the source of which was not traced, and which,
therefore, might have been water-borne infection, 83 live within the
area of the "Croydon" supply, and 44 in the "Lambeth" area.
The enteric fever incidence in the two areas was, therefore, 7
per 10,000 in the "Croydon" area, and 12 per 10,000 in the
" Lambeth" area for the six years. The numbers are in both
cases, so small, as practically to exclude any suspicion or infection
of either public water stfpply during the six years in question,
and are sufficient to refute the suggestion that Croydon water has
during recent years produced any ill effect.
DIARRHœA AND EPIDEMIC ENTERITIS accounted for 52
deaths, of which 42 occurred in children under one year of age.
There were also 22 deaths from other forms of enteritis, of which 13
were under one year of age. Thus of the total, 74 deaths from
" diarrhoeal " diseases, no less than 55 were those of infants under
one year of age. It will be seen from Table VI. that " diarrhoeal "
deaths were considerably less than in any year for the past decade
except 1903.
The accompanying chart shows the seasonal distribution of the
deaths under one year from diarrhoeal diseases. It will be seen that
35 out of the 55 deaths were in the third quarter. This curve again
shows that a high mean temperature of the air does not in itself
affect diarrhoeal mortality as it should do if putrefaction of