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39
The Clerk and Surveyor of the Enfield Council still act as Clerk
and Architect of the Hospital. Miss Eardley is the matron.
Fire. The Hospital is in telephonic communication with
Edmonton File Station.
Sewage. This is disposed of by a private system, the effluent
passing into the watercourse known as Hounsden Gutter, a tributary of
Salmon's Brook.
Antitoxin. During 1911-12, Dr. Cook used it in all cases where
none, or an insufficient quantity had been administered to the diphtheria
case before admission.
In most cases 4,000 units were given, and some were given as
much as 28,000 units. Drugs were only given for the treatment of
complications. He urges medical men to give antitoxin at once to cases
of diphtheria or suspected diphtheria, and not to let them wait until
hospital is reached.
Return Cases. In his Report for 1910-11, Dr. Cook defines a
" return case " to be " any person admitted from the same house to which
we have discharged a scarlet fever patient within a period of six months."
During the year 1912 there have been ten families in which return cases
have occurred. Dr. Cook estimates the percentage of return cases during
1911-12 as 2.63. One case (M.P.) is believed to have affected not only her
own family but two other families, when without my knowledge and consent
she went visiting relatives. There were two diphtheria return cases
affecting three persons, but it is fair to say that in neither instance did
cultivation show diphtheria bacilli in the nasal discharge of the person
who had returned from hospital. In one family a case of scarlet fever
occurred four days after the return of a patient who had been treated
for enteric fever, and exhibited a. scabby sore behind left ear.
One case of scarlet fever (S.M.H.) was re-admitted on a second
notification because it developed secondary rash, and in another (J.A.)
re-admission was offered but refused by the parents.
SMALL POX HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION
Since January 31st, 1907, the Middlesex Districts Joint Small-pox
Hospital has been in existence at South Mimms. We must rejoice that,
although precepts have been made from time to time on the Edmonton
treasury, no patients from the district have been sent there yet with
small-pox. The money (£315 6s. 0d. for 1912-13) is a premium for an
advantageous insurance.