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8
are not as careful as they might be in the matter of isolation,
evidently not realizing the danger of others visiting the house.
It is difficult to combat this dangerous disease, so little
being known of its actual cause, but ^doubtless sewer gas, bad
drains, wet sites, and dampness generally are predisposing
causes.
In eighteen houses where the disease occurred the drains
and sanitary arrangements were in a very defective condition,
and at four of these houses the cases were fatal.
Of the sixty cases notified twenty-seven attended schools,
viz.: nine Holy Trinity Schools; seven Haydon's Road Schools;
five Dundonald Schools; two the Roman Catholic Schools, and
four private schools.
Eleven cases were notified, and one death occurred against
seventeen last year and one death, and ten in 1896 and two
deaths.
No cases occurred in February, March, April, June, July
and August. Two cases occurred in January, two in May,
one in September, two in October, two in November, and two
in December, (see Table 2). The fatal case occurred in May at
a house in Nelson Road, a boy, aged 5 years.
Two of the cases were attributed to eating shell fish. Two
were builder's foremen whose work naturally laid them open
to danger, two others contracted the disease in London,
and the fatal case occurred where the drains and manhole were
choked. At those premises where defects were found, they
were remedied, and particular attention given to the cleansing
of the drinking water cisterns. In the remaining cases the
cause could not be traced.
Since the commencement of the year the Head Masters
and Mistresses of the Public Elementary Schools have kindly
furnished me with a list of absentees, the cause of whose
Typhoid
Fever.
Measles.