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74
But for the promptitude of the head teacher in notifying
before the disease had obtained an extensive hold of the school,
it is probable that a much more serious outbreak would have had
to have been dealt with.
One incident of the school closure is instructive. The parent
of a scholar, excluded as a result of the closure sent
the child to school in the neighbouring borough of Paddington.
While attending this school the child developed measles, and as a
result a considerable outbreak occurred in the school in question.
It is often urged that school closure is futile, because the
children play together in the streets, and there infect one another.
It is doubtless a fact that street infection does occur under these
conditions, but it is none the less a fact that school closure,
whether specifically with this object or for the purpose of holidays,
does result in checking the spread of such diseases as measles and
whooping cough; and especially is this so in regard to the
infant departments. Generally speaking, the younger the child
the more liable is it to contract and die from these diseases if
exposed to infection.
Of all the cases coming to knowledge during the year, no
fewer than 33 per cent, were primary cases occurring in the
infants' departments, whom there was reason to believe had
contracted the disease by school contact.
To these have to be added 11.7 per cent, of primary cases
occurring among infants attending public elementary schools
who were believed to have contracted the disease otherwise than
by school contact.
In the boys', girls' and mixed departments, on the other
hand, the primary cases occurring in infected households and