View report page

an outbreak or epidemic, and in only a few
instances was the source of infection traced to
contact with another case. Many, indeed
most of them, were extremely mild, and it is
owing to this attenuation in the matter of
virulence and to the added difficulty of diagnosis
between mild scarlet fever, roseola, and
temporary rashes, that cases run the risk of
being labelled scarlet fever when they are not,
or of being, as is, I fear, more often the case,
altogether overlooked or ignored, and so becoming
centres of infection owing to the
absence of proper common sense precautions.
In the British Medical Journal of October
31st last there appeared a remarkable article
by Dr. Milne giving at some length the results
of considerable experience in preventive treatment
by means of inunction with suitable
disinfectants. I was surprised at finding that
the subject did not subsequently receive greater
notice, because if his experience was confirmed
by that of others on a perhaps more extended
scale or dealing with more intense cases, then a
prospect might be opened up of a more successful
and much abbreviated home treatment, or
of a greatly diminished stay in Hospital. This
is an important, very important matter, viewed
in the light of expenditure, for the Isolation
Hospital up-keep makes a heavy pull on the
pockets of the ratepayers. This method is not
13