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low, viz., 4.9 per cent., as compared with 10.3, 11 1, and 6.9
in the three preceding years respectively. Some portion,
however, of the apparent reduction in the case-mortality may
not unreasonably be ascribed to the operation of the Compulsory
Notification Act, as it is to be presumed that we
received information of nearly, if not quite all of the cases, including
therefore many of a milder form such as in pre-notification
times would not have been reported. The reduction in
the gross mortality is no doubt largely due to the greater use
now made of hospitals for isolation of the sick, and the consequent
reduction in the number of centres of infection. In
1878 only 7 per cent. of the total deaths from this disease
occurred in the London Fever and Metropolitan Asylums
Hospitals, from which date the proportion has risen year by
year, until, in 1890, it reached 622 per cent.; the proportion
in Kensington cases, in 1891, was 81 per cent. The percentage
of removals, in our own Parish, which in 1890 had fallen
to 57 rose to 61 in 1891. One hundred and forty-nine of
the children attacked had been in attendance at schools.
STATISTICAL RETURNS SCARLET FEVER.
The Asylums Board addressed a circular letter to the
Vestries and District Boards, in October, 1887, making
application for information to enable them to ascertain " the
extent as compared with previous years, to which scarlet
fever had been prevalent during the year"in the several
districts; their object being to form "as correct an estimate
as possible of the accommodation to be provided in future"
for cases of this disease. At the request of your Vestry, I
drew up the desired information, in the form of the subjoined
Tables, which are self-explanatory, and have been brought up
to date. It need hardly be added that the Board now obtain
necessary information, through the Medical Officers of Health,
under the notification provisions of the Public Health (London)
Act 1891 : the Tables, nevertheless, still possess interest,