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The Council's scheme continues to have a good educational effect in the Borough. The Superintendent
of the Kensington District Nursing Association, Miss Eales, tells me that the nurses find no difficulty in
carrying out the treatment in the patients' homes, and the doctors in the neighbourhood are glad to make
use of the nurses' services. I have heard no complaint in connection with the treatment. The local medical
practitioners can have their orders carried out by nurses, who report to the doctors on the general progress
of the case. I think the Borough Council are very fortunate in having Miss Eales to supervise this part of
the work.
Kensington District Nursing Association.
The number of cases nursed during the year was forty-eight and no deaths occurred amongst these
children whilst the nurses were in attendance.
During the last four years, only two deaths have occurred amongst two hundred and thirty-five cases
nursed by the Association.
Examination of Health Visitors' Notes.
The number of cases notified was forty-one. Of these twenty-six were under one year and fifteen were
one year and over. The number of families in which the patient was the only case was thirty-eight. Two
families had more than one case. The notes were very carefully recorded.
I gave a list to the Health Visitors of some of the cases which have been discharged from St. Mary
Abbots Hospital, and they visited these and reported upon them. Several have been referred to the Infant
Welfare Centres where they have continued under the supervision of the physician and their weights have
been recorded. In this manner it has been possible to follow up the cases and to see the results of treatment.

"Mixed diet" means gravy and bread or potatoes with a milk pudding at the mid-day meal; the
other meals usually consist of cow's milk. These children invariably are one year old and over.
Dysentery.—Two cases of this disease were notified during the year. The patients were sisters
aged five and two years respectively. The children were admitted to St. Mary Abbots Hospital
with enteritis and upon bacteriological examination being made Flexner dysentery bacilli were
found. These cases were transferred to one of the Metropolitan Asylum Board's Hospitals, but
after they had been there for a fortnight another bacteriological examination showed that no
bacillus associated with dysentery could be isolated, and the patients were therefore discharged.
An aunt of these children arrived from Cairo a month before the date of onset of the disease and,
although she had been in direct contact with them on various occasions, it was impossible to trace
the infection to her.
There was one death from this disease. The case was not notified in this Borough, as the
patient had been an inmate of a mental hospital in the country since 1922, and, therefore, could
not have contracted the disease in Kensington. Owing to the fact that the man's original permanent
place of residence was in this Borough, the Registrar-General allocated the death to Kensington.
Other Notifiable Diseases.—With the exception of tuberculosis and acute rheumatism, which
are dealt with in separate sections, no notifiable infectious diseases, other than those to which
reference has been made, were notified during the year.
NON-NOTIFIABLE DISEASES
Measles.—This disease ceased to be compulsorily notifiable in December, 1919, but the Head
Teachers of the London County Council schools report to Medical Officers of Health all cases, both
of children suffering from measles and of children kept away from school by reason of the disease
existing in their homes.
In view of the high mortality of this disease compared with scarlet fever, the general policy
pursued in most districts in the country in giving priority of admission to isolation hospitals to
cases of scarlet fever is a matter which has been under consideration. In 1926, representatives of
the Ministry of Health, the London County Council, the Metropolitan Branch of the society of
Medical Officers of Health and the Metropolitan Asylums Board met and as an outcome of their
deliberations, the following scheme for the reception of cases of scarlet fever and measles into the
Board's Hospitals was recomended:—
(a) That the Board should allocate from time to time a number of beds for measles
and a number for scarlet fever, such allocation to be altered by the Board as circumstances
demand.
(b) That cases of scarlet fever and measles be admitted on doctors' certificates as now,
without reference to the Medical Officer of Health.
(c) That when shortage of beds for scarlet fever or measles is imminent the Board should
inform the Medical Officers of Health and accept cases only upon their recommendation.