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whose hands were still peeling when she came under observation,
had unhappily been allowed to mix freely with her playmates, and
had been the unconscious carrier of infection into several houses.
No one was more surprised than the mother, when her attention
was called to the obligation which rested upon her of providing
the means of isolation, or in default, of allowing her child to be
removed to the hospital. She was not aware that the child was
suffering from any complaint, nor was she willing to believe that
others might be endangered by a disease which had not entailed a
days illness on her own child. Probably there arc not many
people who are infectious without the fact being apparent to themselves
or their friends; but those who belong to that small class, of
which the example noticed is a type, arc especially dangerous to
their neighbours, and arc doubtless the unconscious and unsuspected
source of origin of many outbreaks of disease.
Scarlet fever occupies a prominent place among the infectious
diseases notified. 1126 cases are attributable to that disease alone.
Of these 1069 recovered from the attack; but the illness ran a
fatal course in 57 instances. 586 cases, or more than 50 per cent.,
were placed under treatment in the hospitals of the Asylums Board.
The next disease in importance, from the number that suffered
from it is Diphtheria. 330 cases are reported. 256 persons
recovered, and 74 died. 150 persons were notified as suffering
from Typhoid Fever. Of these, 120 recovered and 30 died.
Puerperal Fever, a very fatal disease, but happily now of very
occasional occurrence, carried off 11 cases of the 13 reported.
But Erysipelas, affecting 248 people, caused the death of only 3.
15 cases of Smallpox were reported, but the disease was not well
marked in any, and all the persons infected recovered. 46 cases
were returned as suffering from Croup, and 41 from Continued
Fever. Seven cases of Diarrhoea appear in the returns as Cholera.