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AVERAGE STAY IN HOSPITAL of recovered cases of true
diphtheria was 65.1 days, an increase of 2.9 days compared
with the figure of 62.2 days for 1936, and 5.5 days more than
the average of 59.6 days over the 7-year period, 1930-1936
inclusive.
SCARLET FEVER.
The trend of thought respecting scarlet fever has altered
so much within the last few years that the former narrow
field of prevention, concerned only with the typical case, the
destiny of which was a period of isolation, has now widened to
cover a much larger area of operation in which are concerned
the varied clinical entities brought about by the activities of
the streptococcus hæmolyticus.
From the wider consideration there have emerged conflicting
considerations. For example, what is the relationship
to each other of the hæmolytic streptococci found in the
various conditions thought to be produced by their influence,
i.e., scarlet fever, erysipelas, puerperal septicæmia, and
epidemic sore throat?
One view is that the various streptococci producing the
clinically differing factors have no distinctive pathogenic
properties and that their effects are dependent on distinctive
physiological endowment of the affected individual, conferring
scarlet fever in one case, erysipelas in another, and so on.
Opposed to this view is that which regards the hæmolytic
streptococci as possessing distinct pathogenic groups, one such