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defective drainage, exposure to sewer air, and
insanitary surroundings are the "principal causes"
or the creative factors of diphtheria belongs to the
past and is not founded on fact or on experience.
But nevertheless insanitary conditions must always
be searched for and remedied, for at least they are
contributory causes by lowering the general health of
the inmates of the house and his or her resisting
power if exposure to germs arises, for then the
mucous membrane of the mouth or nose offers sites
more favourable for the implanting and development
of any germ (bacillus) that may come into contact
therewith. Equally important is damp in cupboards,
walls or flooring as favouring the growth of these
germs. All this resolves itself again into the extreme
necessity of care in the treatment of "occasional
sore throat," when perhaps nothing is visible beyond
superficial redness, especially if accompanied with a
cold in the nose with discharge-rhinitis.
Enteric Fever.—Two cases only were reported;
both were removed to the hospital and one died.
The drainage of the houses from whence these cases
were removed was found defective, in one case very
much so, but, notwithstanding, no other cases
occurred. It is not established that the disease
in either case was necessarily due to these facts.
Phthisis.—There were 7 deaths from this
complaint, as compared with 14 in 1905 and 12
in 1904. As soon as a death from this disease is
registered, a special return is sent in by the Registrar
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