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42
of four years notification were fully reported (see Council's
Minutes, 11th February, 1909), and they were so satisfactory
that it was resolved to continue the voluntary notification
indefinitely, and to extend the period of notification to June
and October, thus making the disease notifiable during five
months instead of three
149 cases were notified in the past year The subjoined
tables give full particulars of these Owing largely to the mild
summer, the notifications were fewer than in any of the past
five years excepting 1907. 18 cases were notified in June, 8
in July, 63 in August, 49 in September, and 11 in October 10
deaths occurring in the same period were certified to be from
diarrhoea or zymotic enteritis 4 of these were notified during
life, and 6 were not notified
The fatality (deaths per 100 cases) was 2.4, which is much
lower than in the four preceding years, when it was 14.6 As
pointed out in the report above referred to, the fatality has
been highest when the prevalence was greatest, and vice versa,
but the fatality in 1909 was much lower than in any year since
notification began
Age Distribution Table I gives the age distribution of the
cases, the largest number in any three-monthly age period was
between 9 and 12 months of age 32 cases over five years were
notified ; 28 of these were notified by one medical practitioner
Though the disease undoubtedly affects persons at all ages, it
seems probable that in the case of the practitioner mentioned
there were a good many cases of mistaken diagnosis
Local Distribution (See Table II) In proportion to population
and births, the largest number of cases was in
St Nicholas, Central, and North River Wards, and the smallest
in Herbert, Burrage, and St George's