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attention of the Committee to the statistics of mortality as
quoted in the above Memorial, from which it appeared that in
1887 the mortality from measles was more than twice as great
as that from scarlet fever. It was therefore resolved to
recommend the Board to again memorialise the Local Government
Board to authorise the Managers of the Asylums Board
[to receive into the hospitals under their control such cases of
measles as the Medical Officers of Health might consider it
desirable to send. The following Memorial was accordingly
prepared and presented:—
"To the Honourable the Local Government Board.
The humble Memorial of the Board of Works for the Saint
Saviour's District, under their Common Seal,
Sheweth:—
That, in July last, your Memorialists as the Sanitary Authority for
the District of St. Saviour, Southwark, addressed a Memorial to your
Honourabl. Board Showing (inter alia) that during the year 1887 the
said district of your Memorialists in common with the rest of the
Metropolis, suffered from m epidemic of zymotic diseases, and that
an unduly large proportion of deaths resulted from measles, the
numbc bing a, under viz., out of 12,027 cases which were recorded
in the Metropolis, 3,762 suited from diarrhoea, 2,928 from whooping
cough, 2,81)3 from measles, 1,431 from scarlet fever, 951 from diphtheria,
653 from different forms of fever, and 9 from small pox, and your
Memorialists prayed that coses of measles and of diphtheria might be
receivod into the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in like
manner and under the same restrictions as cases of fever, small pox
and other forms of zymotic disease.
Your Memorialists observe with satisfaction that provisional
arrangements have been made by your honourable Board for the
reception into the hospitals of persons suffering from diphtheria, and
that it is the intention of your honourable Board to introduce a Bill
for the purpose of removing any doubts which may exist as to the
legality of the reception of such cases; hut your Memorialists regret
that arrangements were not made simultaneously for the reception
of cases of measles into the hospitals as prayed by your Memorialists.
Your Memorialists desire to draw the attention of your honourable
Board to the fact that, as shewn by the above statistics, the mortality
from measles in the year 1887, was, notwithstanding the severe
epidemic of scarlet fever which then prevailed, more than twice as
great as from the latter.
Your Memorialists are advised that, owing to the infectious nature
of the disorder and to the great difficulty and oftentimes impossibility
of isolating such cases in the homes of the poor, there is danger of the
outbreak of measles assuming an epidemic form; and they submit
that, having regard to the large proportion of deaths there from, it is