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23
were members of the same family in which the onset of the father's attack
was some six days after that of the child. In all those patients at home
the illness was so mild in character that there was no necessity to remove
any of them to hospital.
FOOD POISONING.
Only four cases of food poisoning were notified during the year, two
of them being adult members of the same family. In each case the
symptoms were of short duration.
ERYSIPELAS.
39 cases of erysipelas were notified during the year, of whom 26 were
females. The face was the affected site in 28, the leg in 7.
17 patients were treated in isolation hospitals, the remainder at
home.
The incidence of the cases was somewhat higher in the first half of
the year, March being the month with most cases when 8 were notified.
The incidence in the second half of the year was more irregular, 7 of the
15 cases occurring in the month of November.
CEREBRO-SPINAL FEVER.
In 1940, this district with its 38 cases suffered in common with the
rest of the country from a higher than normal incidence. This last
year, the 25 notifications, while a marked decrease on the figure in 1940,
was still appreciably higher than the average notification rate for previous
years. One notification was withdrawn but one fatal case was first
known of from the transfer death returns.
Apart from one case in September and two in November, the cases
occurred in the first half of the year, being more or less evenly distributed
over this period. All ages were affected, the youngest case being a
female infant of one month and the oldest a man of 62. Five cases
proved fatal. Three patients were treated at home, four in isolation hospitals
and the remainder in general hospitals, in most cases it seems, the
diagnosis having been made after the admission of the patients.
MEASLES.
As reported last year, this infection behaved irregularly by not
appearing at the expected time in what was anticipated to have been
an epidemic year, there being little enough until the outbreak rising from
the onset in September to its peak in November. In 1941, a non-epidemic
year, there were, nevertheless, 1,275 notifications. The distribution,
however, was most irregular. The average weekly notifications
tor the first quarter was 57; there was a marked fall at the beginning
of the second quarter and the incidence in the next thirteen weeks
remained fairly uniform, resulting in an average notification rate of 25.
The disease virtually died out early in the third quarter when there were
Only 57 cases in all, to rise again in December, this increase being the
Prelude to the epidemic proportions reached in the early months of this
year. The children of 21 schools were affected, though at most the