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6
did not appear to call for more than letters of enquiry to
the medical practitioners concerned. As regards notification
by householders, however, the Act remains a dead letter.
The year was not marked by any widespread
epidemic. The following is a statement of the number of
cases notified:—
Scarlet Fever 100
Diphtheria 51
Membranous Croup 1
Enteric Fever 27
Small Pox 1
Puerperal Fever 2
Erysipelas 53
235
scarlet fever.
100 cases were notified during 1894, of which 25
occurred in the month of January. The disease had been
extensively prevalent in the District in 1893, as may be
seen on reference to my Annual Report for that year, and
at the commencement of 1894 there were cases in 32 houses
in the District. In these houses 4 secondary cases occurred
in 1894.
Of the remaining 96 cases, two occurred in the
Strand Union premises, and came from without the district,
and two others were instances of secondary infection through
patients returning from a fever hospital; in both of these
instances a child had been admitted to one of the Hospitals
of the Metropolitan Asylums Board from a house without
this District suffering from Scarlet Fever, and on recovery
was taken from the Hospital to a house in this District, to
which its home had in the meantime been transferred, and
within a few days of the return of the patient another child
of the family, in each instance, became affected.
Of the 92 cases left by deducting these, 29 were
secondary cases in infected houses, nearly one-third of the
whole, showing how defective home isolation is in many of
the houses. These 29 secondary cases arose in 17 houses.
In one house there were five secondary cases; in two houses,
three ; in four houses, two; and in ten houses, one secondary
case besides the primary case.
Deducting the secondary cases there remain 63
primary cases for consideration. Of these 36 appear to have
arisen in connection with attendance at Public Elementary
Schools, viz.: 20 among children attending the Brettenham
Road School, 6 among children attending the St. James'
Schools, and 10 among children attending the Croyland