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16
The ''corrected'' Return for 1898 has not yet been
received from the Metropolitan Asylums Board.
Small-pox.—No case of small-pox was notified. In
London there were 35 notifications, and 1 death.
The statistics of all epidemics of small pox show the
enormous value of vaccination and re-vaccination. Notwithstanding
this the proportion of children that are not
vaccinated has been increasing year by year since 1881,
both in the Metropolis and the rest of England. In 1881
the proportion of children unaccounted for in regard to
vaccination (including cases postponed) in the Metropolitan
Unions was only 5.7 per cent. of the total births. In 1891
this proportion had risen to 16.4 per cent., and is still
rising. In 1895, the last return available, the proportion
was 24.9 per cent.
See introduction, pages 5 and 6, re the Vaccination Act,
1898. Scarlet Fever or Scarlatina.—There were 67 cases
notified, and only 1 death; 64 of the 67 cases were removed
to hospital. In London the notifications were 16,917 in
number, and the deaths from the complications of this
disease were 583, the smallest number of deaths in London
from this disease ever recorded, and much below the average
of the preceding ten years.
In February, 5 cases of scarlet fever occurred at the
Workhouse, the first two cases were two young children, one
12 months and the other 18 months.