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that its adoption will give greater facilities for dealing with this and
the other non-notifiable diseases in the future.
As in previous years the greatest mortality from measles occurred
in the second age period (1 to 5 yrs.) and in this group it accounted
for over 17 per cent. of the deaths. It is during this age period that
school attendance in the baby classes is first commenced, and owing
to the high susceptibility of these children to measles, and to the
favourable conditions which school attendance offers for its spread
amongst them, it is not to be wondered at that in epidemic times
these infants not only suffer heavily themselves, but also form the
chief channel through which infection is carried, often with fatal
results, to the still younger babies at home.
The following table, which deals with all the measles' deaths for
the year, brings out rather strikingly the relation between school
•attendance under school age and the mortality from measles.
DEATHS FROM MEASLES DURING THE YEAR 1905.
Table showing ages at death of the fatal cases and the ages of the
first cases in those families in which the deaths occurred, together
with the school attendance history of each :—