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60
Town Hall,
Edmonton,
15th December, 1904.
To the Sub.Committee appointed to enquire
into the recent outbreak of
SUMMER DIARRHCEA.
Gentlemen,
In accordance with the request of the Sanitary Committee, I beg
to present the accompanying report on the epidemic of Summer
Diarrhoea that occurred in Edmonton during the third quarter of
the present year. The epidemic has been, as you are aware, an
unusually severe one, and has placed this district in the unenviable
position of third on the list of death rates, from this disease, in the
kingdom. As I hope to point out, however, this prominent place in
the Registrar General's table is, to some extent at any rate, hardly
deserved ; nevertheless, the figures themselves indicate a condition
of things sufficiently grave to demand the most serious attention of
all who are interested in the welfare of the district.
Seeing that Summer Diarrhoea is an epidemic infectious disease, it
is necessary, in order to deal with it efficiently, that the measures
decided upon for its control should be put into operation some considerable
time before the epidemic season sets in. It is very desirable
therefore, that an understanding on the nature and extent of these
measures should be arrived at as speedily as possible.
The facts examined in this report were, for the most part, obtained
by your Woman Inspector, Miss M. M. Pole, in the course of her
systematic visits to houses where deaths from diarrhoea occurred.
In commenting on them I have sought to point out certain broad
lines on which preventive measures might be based in the future.
I may state them here as being :—
Firstly—The education of the people in matters relating to their
children's health and well.being.