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spread of measles. Not regarding it as a serious disease;
considering it, moreover, to be as inevitable as teething, they
naturally enough rather like to have all of the children ill at
one time, and get the trouble over. We must allow, 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 usually 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 of the lungs, &c., which are, as a rule,
the immediate causes of death.
The deaths in London from measles in 1891 were 1807,
being 871 below the corrected decennial average. In 1890
the deaths from this cause were 3291, and 064 above the
average.
SCARLET FEVER.
This disease, which was the cause of 26, 28, and 26
deaths in three preceding years respectively, proved fatal to 16
persons in 1891, the corrected decennial average being 29.
Only three of the deaths belong to the Brompton sub-district:
thirteen occurred in hospitals, to which 206 out of 323
recorded cases were removed. Of the 323 cases, 181 belong
to North Kensington, viz., that part of the Parish north of
Uxbridge Road; and 142 to South Kensington, i.e., the
remainder of the parish south of Uxbridge Road. The cases
recorded in the three preceding years respectively, were 252,
252, and 375.
The deaths in London from scarlet fever in 1891 were 589,
the corrected decennial average being 1394 : it was the eighth
successive year in which the mortality from this disease
was largely below the previous decennial average. The type
of disease being mild, the case-mortality, in Kensingtdn, was