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diseases, viz , Mumps and Whooping Cough, and as to the Board's
regulations generally in respect to other infectious diseases.
In view of the importance of the subject, the Society have deemed
it desirable to offer a collective reply to the letter; and we are
instructed to submit the following observations :
The Society are of opinion that a child, if suffering itself from
Mumps, should be excluded from school; but it is not necessary to
prohibit the attendance of a healthy child coming only from an infected
house. Again, in the case of Whooping Cough, if a child itself is
suffering from this disease, it ought certainly to be excluded; but
having regard to the fact that the danger from the disease is not so
great at school-attending ages, the Society would not prohibit the
attendance of healthy children coming from infected families.
The Society, while believing that an elementary knowledge of the
symptoms of infectious disease may be of use in enabling school
teachers to exclude children having marked signs of such disease,
think that no regulations can be trusted to replace medical inspection
of children, and therefore desire to express no opinion as to the sufficiency
of those regulations adopted by the Board for this purpose.
The Society regret to find that Metropolitan Medical Officers of
Health generally have not received notification of cases of infectious
disease from teachers and visitors, as the regulations of the School
Board appear to require.
We are, Sir,
Your obedient servants,
SHIELEY F. MUEPHY, Hon.
C. E. SAUNDEES, M.D., Secs.
G. H. Croad, Esq., B.A.,
Clerk to the London School Board.
MEASLES.
(Decennial average, 83.0).
This disease was very prevalent and fatal. The deaths referred
to it were 163, double the decennial average, and four times as
many as in the preceding year. One hundred and fifty-eight were
young children.
DIARRHœA.
(Decennial average, 109.2).
Diarrhœal diseases caused 84 deaths, one of which was attributed
to Cholera, and two others to Choleraic Diarrhoea. Seventy-two of
the deaths were amongst young children, 57 of whom were infants.