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10
After the lapse of a week two more cases appeared,
one on December 4th, and the other on the 5th, both
children attending the Infant School.
On December 18th a lad of 17 living at Surbiton Hill
was notified and removed to the Hospital, and during the
latter part of December there were four other cases in the
lower part of Surbiton, for which at present I have been
unable to find any adequate reason. There has been a
second or subsidiary outbreak in the early part of 1896, a
special report of which has been made to the Council, but
of course further allusion to that cannot be made here.
It is worthy of note that in connection with this outbreak
two children were found to bave had scarlet fever neither
of whom had been seen by a doctor. A third case at
present unreported has also come to my knowledge.
A not unimportant lesson to be learnt from this outbreak
is the unwisdom of an incompetent person taking upon
him or herself to decide what a rash is or what it means.
Doctors themselves are well aware of the difficulty, and
few cases calling for accuracy of diagnosis give them more
anxiety than the having to decide whether a rash or an
eruption is or is not infectious. If this is the case, how
presumptious it must be for any unskilled man or woman
to decide such a matter. Nevertheless, it is a thing done
not unfrequently, and if the case turns out to be nothing,
no evil results follow, but if in their wisdom these wellmeaning
people pronounce a rash to be of no consequence
and it turns out to be scarlet fever and invades a score of
homes they won't blame themselves, but shelter themselves
behind their ignorance. I have seen this over and over
again, and the dire consequences resulting from it. As a
word of advice I would say, "don't let any mother, if she
"wishes to do as she would be done by, take upon herself