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incidence from 100 to 130 cases. There were 127 cases last
year and this year there are 137, so that this feature of the disease
has continued. Fortunately, scarlet fever continues to be a mild
disease and the practice is undoubtedly growing of treating these
cases at home where arrangements for proper isolation can be
made and the parents are anxious to keep the child at home.
Diphtheria. There were five cases of diphtheria. This is
a record. The previous lowest number ever recorded was in 1934
when there were 8 cases. On page 10 will be found a graph
showing the correlation between the increases in immunisation
and the fall in incidence of diphtheria.
Measles. There were 347 cases of measles as compared with
568 last year, so that if it can be described as an epidemic it was
at any rate limited in extent and the disease too, was of the mild
type we have become accustomed to expect in recent years. So
much so, that one wonders whether preventive measures are
justifiable until we have a prophylactic free from risk of serious
complications.
Whooping Cough. There were 232 cases of whooping
cough notified during the year with one death attributed to this
condition. This number corresponds very closely to last year's
figure of 238.
As I have already mentioned, this disease has become one
of the prime enemies of the child population and though its
mortality remains low, its capacity for debilitation and the
subsequent arrest of the satisfactory development of the child,
makes the search for a satisfactory prophylactic one of the most
urgent problems of preventive medicine.
Anterior Poliomyelitis. If this year's epidemic of Acute
Poliomyelitis is not repeated, and it is profoundly to be hoped
that such will be the case, the year 1947 will always be remembered
both by the public and by epidemiologists. An epidemic
so widespread was bound to produce some cases of this disease
in our own district and there were in fact a total of 22 cases,
where the disease was established with a convincing degree of
clinical accuracy. There were a further 11 cases notified and
admitted to hospital which are not included because the hospital
did not confirm the diagnosis and there were 2 admitted to
hospital in which an indisputable alternative diagnosis was
established, one a case of cerebral haemorrhage in an adult who
died and the other a child of 3½ who turned out to be cerebro
spinal meningitis. The number of suspected cases not notified
by the General Practitioners remains unknown. From the hospital
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