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39
the notifications in the last week of November numbered 33,
and in the first week of December 26.
This epidemic was of a wide-spread character, and the
increase and decline in the weekly number of notifications was
synchronous with the increase and decline in London as a
whole. This general prevalence caused an unusual demand to
be made upon the accommodation afforded by the Metropolitan
Asylums Board's Hospitals for these cases. The Tottenham
Urban District Council, in consideration of the payment of a
certain sum to the Metropolitan Asylums Board, have
secured the retention of 100 beds for patients coming from
their area suffering from particular infectious diseases. This
limited number of beds proved quite inadequate to meet the
needs of the district in this epidemic, and many cases had to
be nursed at home who ought properly to have been
removed to Hospital. It is gratifying to record, however,
that of the cases retained at home, none died. I may here
be permitted to point out that the arrangement with the
M.A.B. above referred to was entered into in the year 1894,
when the population of Tottenham numbered about 74,000.
The population has more than doubled since then, and the
question whether the time has now arrived for more ample
provision to be made for the isolation of the infectious sick is
one worthy of your serious consideration.
The epidemic commenced very soon after the opening
of the schools. But the most careful investigation of the
cases failed to show that the schools played any conspicuous
part in the dissemination of the infection. About a dozen
children with evidences of desquamation were excluded on