London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St James's 1860

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St James's, Westminster]

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12
who have measles and scarlet fever, that these
diseases would prove loss destructive of life. I have
especially observed with regard to the latter disease,
that it. is spread by the practice of sending children
to school from the midst of families in which this
disease exists. I have, however, been misunderstood
on this point, and I would here state that I do not
attribute the occurrence of this disease to the unsanitary
state of schools, but to the practice above
alluded to, of sending children to school from infected
families. It would, I think, be a good rule in all
public day schools, that no child should be allowed
to attend from families in which either measles or
scarlet fever exist. I think, too, with the undoubted
evidence that exists, that hooping cough is a communicable
disease, that children with this disease
should not be sent to school.
At the latter end of 1859 we were threatened with
an epidemic of small pox, and in my Report of last
year I reported the steps that had been taken to
arrest the progress of the disease in our Parish. In
1859 but four fatal cases of this disease occurred
amongst us, and only four in 1860, so that we have
every reason to conclude that the efforts which were
then made were successful. In 1859 the number
of cases of death from small pox in the whole
Metropolis was 1156, and in 1860 it was 870. If
the mortality in St. James's had boon the same as
that of the Metropolis, in proportion to population,
our deaths ought to have been 25 for the two
years, 1859-60, instead of 8. When we remember,