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18
Committee are based on the proportion of return cases t???
discharged patients in 1893 and 1894, but there is nothing
in any of the abstracts of the reports of the Medical Officer
to show that they have given all the "return" cases that
came to their knowledge in these two years; in fact, i???
the return I sent, only those were given that occurred i???
1894 and the early months of 1895, while the number c???
such cases in 1893 was, proportionately, quite as great
similarly in the return from Chelsea, particulars are given o???
the "return" cases that occurred in that parish from
February, 1894, to April, 1895, and none are given that
occurred in 1893, though from a footnote in the report one
gathers that they were more numerous in that year
Another remarkable feature of the Committee's report is
that they have omitted to take into account any of the cases
that occurred in Islington. The report states, with regard
to this parish, that the Medical Officer of Health, having
been previously in correspondence with the Managers and
the Local Government Board on the subject, was not
written to, and consequently the Committee actually assume
that in this parish, which is the largest in London, having a???
population thrice that of Fulham there were no “return"
cases, whereas it was largely owing to the action of the
Vestry of Islington, consequent on the number of cases that
occurred in their parish, that this enquiry was instituted. It
must be evident from the above that the proportion of
"return cases to discharges is really much higher than that
given by the Committee.
As to the other conclusions of the Committee, I pointed
out in my last annual report when dealing with the "return"
cases of Scarlet Fever, that "in some instances it is quite
possible that the infection was conveyed by some article of
clothing which had been worn by the first patient at the
commencement of the illness, put away without being
disinfected and on his return again brought into use.” For
although the disinfector is most careful to remove every
article from the room occupied by the patient, and always
enquires for anything that may have been removed from the
room, it is clearly impossible to ensure the removal of every
article that has been in contact with the patient.