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The Registrar-General remarks that " a very insignificant
proportion of the deaths from measles occur in hospitals, and
the tendency on the part of the public to estimate the prevalence
of a disease merely by the pressure to which it subjects hospital
authorities is well illustrated by the fact that while much alarm
was felt as to scarlet fever, which was in reality less than
averagely prevalent, no such general alarm was felt as to
measles which was more than averagely fatal." The deaths
from measles were 2,894, being exactly double the fatality
from scarlet fever, 1,447.
SCARLET FEVER.
This disease, which was the cause of seven and eleven
deaths in 1885 and 1886 respectively, proved fatal to 44 persons
in 1887—forty of the deaths belonging to the Town sub-district.
Of the 44 deaths 22 occurred in hospitals, to which 316 out of
465 recorded cases were removed for treatment. Of the 465
cases 240 belonged to North Kensington—viz., that part of the
parish north of Uxbridge Road; and 225 to South Kensington
—the remainder of the parish south of that road. The cases
in the four preceding years respectively were 231, 202, 110,
and 100. The disease was epidemic in the latter half of 1887;
the cases recorded being being 389 against 76 in the first half
of the year.
Last year, as usual, the occurrence of scarlet fiver 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 some instances, moreover,
when the existence of the disease became known at an early
period, parents refused to allow their children to be removed to
hospitals, these cases however being far less numerous than in
preceding years. A certain number of home patients were, to all
appearance, properly isolated, and the removal of them to
hospital was deemed unnecessary; but proof was not wanting
that, even when the sufferers had what might be fairly described
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