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58
INFLUENZA
At no time of the year was this disease prevalent, and 10 deaths,
mainly in old people, were registered as due to its influence.
Generally the disease, when fatal, is accompanied by pneumonia or
bronchitis, and the only protection against its spreading and fatality is
to lie in bed directly the initial symptoms make their appearance.
PUERPERAL FEVER—LYING-IN FEVER.
Eight women were certified as suffering from this disease and five
deaths resulted.
There were ten other deaths due to "Accidents and Diseases of
Parturition," so that of the total 3,482 women confined 15 died as a
result.
It is hardly credible that so few lying-in women contract fever,
considering the conditions under which many are placed, and the
lack of all antiseptic precautions displayed by unqualified nurses.
Investigations are made into all cases of Fever, and adequate
precautions against spreading adopted.
PHTHISIS OR CONSUMPTION.
The deaths registered from this disease were 103, as compared with
104 in 1907 and 123 in 1906, 93 in 1995 and 96 in 1904.
Added to these were 18 deaths from Tuberculosis of Meninges and
20 from "other forms of Tuberculosis," so that a disease preventable
and curable was the cause of 141 deaths, or over 11 per cent. of the
deaths from all causes, and equal to a rate of 1.07 per 1,000 of the
population.
Every case of Tuberculosis is now looked upon as the result of a
specific infection as in Typhoid and Diphtheria, and the old-time
belief that the children of consumptive parents are foredoomed to the
same fate is exploded.
The only measure adopted here until the beginning of 1909 was the
disinfection of rooms where consumptives died, and of the clothing and
bedding used by them when the friends sanctioned such a course.