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48. Tlie tables make it clear that, whereas some schools have
maintained for the whole ten years a low rate of infection, others
have had a high rate; and between the two extremes there are
all degrees of incidence.
Elizabeth Street School for the past five years had far the
highest incidence of Scarlet Fever, and the second highest
Diphtheria rate. Wood Street had the lowest Scarlet Fever rate
and the lowest Diphtheria rate but one. Of the schools for
which figures are available for ten years, Ancona Road had the
highest rate, both for Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria; Purrett
Road, Bloomfield Road, and Earl Street, come next highest for
Scarlel Fever; Burrage Grove and Conway Road for DiphtheriaThe
schools with the lowest Scarlet Fever incidence were Eglinton
Road and Plumstead Road ; and those with the lowest Diphtheria
incidence, Purrett Road and High Street.
49. Although school attendance increases the spread of infection,
it does not follow that the higher incidence at one school
is due to school influence ; it may be due to the fact that the
neighbourhood in which the school is situated suffers more from
the infection. This is probably the reason of the high incidence
at Elizabeth Street School, North Woolwich, being a particularly
unhealthy district. Again, a school may have a high incidence
because the children attending it have escaped exposure to infection
to an exceptional degree before commencing their school
education, and are consequently less protected by a previous
attack than children at other schools. This factor would probably
account to a large extent for schools in good class
neighbourhoods having a higher incidence than those in poor and
crowded districts. In that case we should find that although the
school incidence rates were much higher in the better class
districts, the district rates were more nearly equal. The following
comparison shews that this is actually the case :—
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