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104
No deaths from Mumps were recorded. Certain complications
follow Mumps, the most important being orchitis.
Otherwise the disease is but of temporary inconvenience to a
child. Owing to the long period of incubation and the uncertainty
of the correct diagnosis in many cases unattended
by a. doctor, it is not now usual in this district to exclude
contacts, or children that have been associated with the case.
RINGWORM.
During the last few years much attention has been
devoted to this disease by the school medical staff with
eminently successful results, as the following table will
prove.
Number of cases reported from the schools:—
In 1913 82
In 1912 123
In 1911 150
In 1910 128
In 1909 114
In considering the above table it must be noted that the
apparent increase in the years 1910 and 1911 was probably
due to the detection of many more slight cases that would
in the past have gone unrecorded and undetected. The
decrease in the last two years has, I consider, been a real
one, and has been brought about by careful search for and
rigorous exclusion of every case, however slight. It is the
practice of the department to exclude any case of Ringworm
until two or more examinations of the untreated scalp have
failed to reveal any spore-infected hairs. We are often
criticised by parents, and even by some doctors, for our unwillingness
to allow children to return when apparently cured.
I think that our practice is justified by the great diminution
in the number of children excluded for this disease. It is
remarkable that no case of Ringworm was found in the