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diseases has set in, and when it may be the evidence that they
are complications and not primary diseases has disappeared. It
must be concluded, then, that the main reduction in deaths is
due to a reduction in the number of deaths from measles and
whooping cough and their complications.
The death-rate from measles amounts to 32 per 100,000, that
from whooping cough to 7 per 100,000. The sum of these rates
is the lowest recorded in Willesden since 1895,
It would be premature to credit this reduction to the fact
that for the first time it has been practicable, owing to the
notifications from schools, to enquire into the cases of measles
and whooping cough, and to issue instructions and tender advice
as to the steps to be taken to prevent their spread. But there
can be no question that the work of the Lady Health Visitors has
borne some fruit in this satisfactory result.
Altogether some 730 cases of measles and 90 cases of whooping
cough came to my knowledge during the year, and these were all
visited by the Lady Health Visitors with such beneficial results as
can find only a partial expression in mortality statistics.