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By these means we hope to lengthen the inter-epidemic period so that more
children reach the age of 5 years without contracting Measles. At that age they
are not so susceptible to attack, but even if contracted at that age or afterwards,
the disease is only slightly fatal, as I have already mentioned.
Whooping Cough.
The number of deaths from Whooping Cough was 44, or 66 less than in the
previous year. This corresponds to a death rate of .15 per 1,000 of the population,
while that for the whole of London was .23 per 1,000.
16 belonged to the Limehouse District, or at the rate of .29 per 1,000 of
the population.
3 belonged to St. George-in-the-East, or at the rate of .06 per 1,000 of
the population.
16 belonged to Mile End Old Town, or at the rate of .14 per 1,000 of
the population.
9 belonged to the Whitechapel District, or at the rate of '13 per 1,000 of
the population.
Summer Diarrhoea.
Summer Diarrhoea is now believed by a large section of the medical community
to be an infectious disease, capable of spreading from the sick to the healthy. Direct
infection may be conveyed through the food, chiefly milk, as well as in other ways,
such as rubbing the gums of the infant with the fingers, the use of comforters, placing
the infants on dirty floors, &c.
It is considered by some that the disease is due to a specific micro-organism,
but the probability is that there are many different micro-organisms, all capable of
exciting acute diarrhoea in infants. It cannot be proved at present, either on clinical
or bacteriological grounds, that this or that variety of infantile diarrhoea is due to
any particular micro-organism.
Granted that Summer Diarrhoea is in the large majority of cases due to bacterial
infection, we are still in the dark as to the sources of infection.
A few years ago it was considered to be due to a micro-organism which resided
in the superficial layers of the earth, which contained food suitable for it—that is,
soil polluted with decomposing organic matter. The micro-organism was supposed
to have the power of leaving the soil to be carried by the air, gain access to food,
and be introduced into the human body. According to Dr. Ballard's report to the
Local Government Board on the subject, from " food the micro-organism can
manufacture a substance which is a virulent chemical poison, and this chemical