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teething, they naturally enough hold it to be less trouble, in the
long run, if all the children have the complaint at one time. It
must be allowed, however, that it is difficult to prevent measles
from spreading, the disease being highly infectious from an early
stage, if not from the commencement of the attack. The circumstances,
moreover, in which the poor live in London—two or
more families generally occupying one house and using a common
staircase—almost preclude the possibility of isolation. But
more care might be taken to protect the sufferers against secondary
affections, which, as already stated, are, as a rule, the immediate
causes of death.
The London mortality from measles was somewhat below the
average of the previous decennium, but, as the Registrar-General
tells us, the fall was "not much more than could be explained by
the diminished proportion of children under five in the population,
owing to the continuously low birth rate."
Scarlet Fever.—This disease, which was the cause of seven
deaths only in 1885, proved fatal to eleven persons in 1886—seven
of them in the Town sub-district. Of the eleven deaths three
occurred in hospitals, to which 63 out of 100 recorded cases were
removed for treatment. Of the 100 cases 42 belonged to North
Kensington—viz., that part of the parish north of Uxbridge Road;
and 58 to South Kensington—the remainder of the parish south
of that road. The recorded cases in the three preceding years
respectively were 231, 202, and 110. In 1884 the cases in
North and South Kensington respectively were 75 and 127; in
1885 they were 42 and 68, so that in each of the last three years
the disease appears to have been most prevalent in the southern
half of the parish. As usual, the occurrence of the disease was
concealed in several instances until recovery had taken place, and
the cases were then reported only with the object of obtaining
disinfection at the public expense. In other cases, when the
existence of the disease became known at an early period,
parents refused to allow their children to be removed to hospital.
A certain number of home patients were, to all appearance,