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56
All these deaths are given, although not rightly coming under the
above heading, to make comparison alike with previous years.
The deaths represent a mortality rate of .22 per 1,000, against .5 for
1908, 1.04 in 1906, and .67 in 1905.
The corresponding rate for the "Large Towns" was .38.
Summer Diarrhœa is a disease mainly affecting children of immature
years, especially hand-fed babies, and its prevalence depends largely on
summer heat, and unwholesome home conditions in tenement houses
of one or two rooms.
The year under review has been a markedly favourable one owing to
abundant rain and inconsiderable heat in the third quarter of the year.
The measures of former years taken in the interests of hand-fed
babies, by the distribution of leaflets, were continued; and the Notification
of Births Act, if adopted, would enable your Authority to do
still more by visits to the homes of the poor by "tactful and judicious
health visitors."
MEASLES AND WHOOPING COUGH.
The deaths from these diseases were greater by one-half than all the
other Zymotic Diseases, and three times as many as those for Scarlatina
and Diphtheria combined.
The preventive measures possible against Measles and Whooping
Cough are dissimilar to those taken on behalf of the so-called
dangerous infectious diseases specified in the Act of 1889.
Compulsory notification has been tried and failed, and isolation in
hospital is out of the question.
Exclusion from our infants' schools of sufferers and contacts, with
occasional visiting to homes affected, and the distribution of leaflets of
advice, have been the only measures undertaken.
Much more might be done with a larger staff of Health Visitors.
It always appeals to me so unwise to spend yearly £7,000 on an
Isolation Hospital for the suppression of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria