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In another house four cases occurred successively in two families. All
were removed to hospital, but the three cases in one of the families were
the result of delay in removal of the first case in the other family.
In the above groups 23 cases were secondary, all or most
of which might, presumably, have been prevented by early
notification and removal.
SCARLET FEVER IN LONDON.
More or less epidemic throughout the year, scarlet fever
did not assume a severe type, and the deaths, 1,447 only,
were 518 fewer than the corrected decennial average.
In the latter half of the year, notably after the prorogation
of Parliament, the public mind was considerably exercised by
the daily publication in the newspapers of the number of cases
admitted to the Asylums Board Hospitals, and there can be no
doubt that the exaggerated fears to which such publication gave
occasion operated injuriously to the interests of the trading
community - by keeping families out of town throughout the
winter months. There was not anything to justify the scare
which undoubtedly existed, and for which, in a sense, certain of
the Managers were more or less responsible. The leading
members of the Board, seeing clearly that the ordinary accommodation
would be inadequate to meet the growing demands for
admission, arising in no small degree from the increasing confidence
in which the hospitals are held, proposed to open the
"Northern" Hospital at Winchmore Hill, which had been
erected for the very purpose to which it was proposed to apply
its wards. But the party of "economy" successfully opposed
the proposal again and again. Meanwhile the discussions at the
Board's meetings had been copiously reported, and the country
generally was led to believe in the existence of an unprecedented
crisis which had no foundation in fact. The mischief done by
the delay, moreover, was to the interests of trade rather than
those of public health, as before said, for after all the hospital
was opened in time. The pressure of public opinion, endorsing