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29
SMALL POX.
(No deaths. Decennial average 2.2.)
No case of this disease was reported to me during the year;
indeed, only one death occurred throughout the whole of the
Metropolis.
My attention was called by a medical practitioner to some severe
cases of chicken-pox under his care, which he thought might be
small-pox, a disease he had never seen. I was able to relieve his
anxiety and assure him that his patients were suffering from chickenpox
only.
In view of the fact that we in London have had no epidemic of
small-pox for many years, and that few medical men of the younger
generation have any experience of the disease, I am strongly of
opinion that chicken-pox should be made notifiable. The slight
early cases of an epidemic of small-pox might very easily be
mistaken for the milder disease, and would not be reported.
Amongst a well-vaccinated community this error would be a
matter of minor importance; but I have very little doubt that the
dangerous paltering with the Vaccination Law recently sanctioned
by Parliament will lead to great neglect of vaccination; and, if so,
it will be little short of criminal to overlook even the slightest chance
of nipping an epidemic of small-pox in the bud. It is mournful
that the centenary of the publication by Jenner of his great discovery
should have been selected by the powers that be to throw discredit
upon the effectiveness of the protection afforded by vaccination
against the disfiguring ravages of this foul disease.
SCARLET FEVER.
(77 deaths. Decennial Average 46.8.)
The number of scarlet fever cases notified during the year was
447, only about half the number reported during the previous year.
The deaths numbered n, a rate on the notifications of 2.4 per cent.
The scarlet fever death rate is equal to 0-08 per 1,000 population at
all ages, whilst that for the whole of London is 0.13. In the North