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13
in London. Where one person has died, at
least ten contract the disease and get well. The
cost of this death and disease to the community
is a matter of easy calculation, and is another
instance of the lavish expenditure which a neglect
of the laws of health inflict on the community.
The next zymotic disease from which we have
suffered is measles. The mortality from this disease
has not been very variable during the four years
previous to 1859. In 1855, it was 7 ; in 1856, 11;
in 1857, 13; in 1858, 10; but in 1859, it was
38. This is the highest mortality presented by any
of the forms of zymotic disease during the last four
years. It is undoubtedly preventible by the same
precautions as the other forms of contagious
disease, but so ineradicably fixed in the minds
of all parents is the notion that children must have
the measles, and that it is a mild and harmless disease,
that nothing which can be said or done for its
prevention will carry any weight with them. It is
generally a mild disease, and passes off without
serious symptoms, but occasionally its epidemic
visitations are very severe, as in the case of our
own parish during the past year. Its head quarters
have been the crowded districts of Berwick Street
and Golden Square; for whilst the deaths were but
4 in the St. James's Square district, they were 34
in the two former districts. Not only does this
disease spread more rapidly in crowded districts,
but the mortality is larger. When children are
habitually exposed to the depressing effects of ill-