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Scarlatina should be allowed to go out, or to be otherwise exposed to
the chance of a chill, so long as the process of desquamation or
peeling is going on; as not only is kidney inflammation likely to arise
under these circumstances, but the person is also capable of communicating
the disease to others, and the same may be said of all
other acute zymotic diseases which are followed by this process of
shedding the epidermis, or outer layer of the skin.
FEVER.
Fever caused 38 deaths against 54 in 1876; of these five were
Typhus, 22 Enteric, and 11 Simple Fever. To these, however, must
be added the 10 Hospital deaths (sec table E), bringing up the
total to 48.
The number of cases of Fever of all kinds reported to us during the
year was 225, of those removed 32 were obliged to be taken to the
Stockwell Fever Hospital, as the Ilomerton Fever Hospital was being
used for Small-pox cases ; this latter institution, however, after proper
cleansing and disinfection, was re-opened for the reception of Fever
cases on the 27th of September last, and from this date to the end of
the year 1877, 18 patients were admitted from Bethnal Green, 10 of
these had Enteric Fever, four Scarlatina, three Simple continued Fever,
and one was a case of some disease other than Fever. The ten
deaths were equally divided between the two Hospitals.
WHOOPING COUGH.
Whooping Cough was much less prevalent, and caused 89 deaths,
against 120 last year, all the deaths from this disease, except three,
were amongst young children.
DIARRIICEA.
Diarrhoea caused 95 deaths against 114 last year; the diminished
prevalence of this disorder was probably owing to the temperate
summer. 82 of the deaths were registered in the September quarter
of the year. Of the total deaths, 87 were amongst young children,
52 of these being infants between the ages of three and twelve
months, a somewhal significant fact when one considers that between
these two periods of a child's life it is most often crammed with
improper food.