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112
I should suggest the times be altered so as to follow their
recommendation. It has not been found necessary to close
any school or class during the past year.
SCARLET FEVER.
As will be seen from the accompanying table, there
has been a marked decrease of incidcnce of this disease in
1909 as compared with 1908; 149 cases as against 263 in
the latter year. At the present time we seem to be on a
receding wave with this disease. There has been no
difference in the administrative measures, so that I am
afraid it is more due to the natural sequence, if I may use
the term in this sense, of events, rather than to any special
efforts on our part. The school that suffered most heavily
in any one month was Loxford, in January. This was due,
as pointed out in my last year's report, to some "missed"
cases in close proximity to this school, which affected the
children there at the end of 1908 and the beginning of 1909.
It began with one of those doubtful cases where it was
difficult or impossible to say whether it was Scarlet Fever
or not. In the light of subsequent events it was only too
evident what it was, and being one of a large family, it led
to some diffusion of the poison.
Taking the four first schools, it is curious how similar
is the amount of Scarlet Fever in each school for the year,
and with the exception of Loxford how fairly evenly
distributed they were through the year. One child was
discovered on Medical Inspection to be in the peeling stage
of this disease, and was excluded from school, but no further
case developed in that school for the time. Another was
suspicious, was excluded, but eventually was decided not
to be, and allowed to return after a week.
There were no deaths from this disease during the year.