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13
2 were almost certainly contracted outside the district, as they
had been staying away from home just before their illness.
In 2 instances serious drainage defects were found to exist in
the houses, and no other cause was discoverable. One of these
cases was not suspected for some time to be enteric, until 3
other persons in the same house later on fell ill with the disease.
They probably owed their origin to direct infection.
In another case no cause was ascertained beyond the fact
that the patient was stated to have been in the habit of eating
cheap shell-fish.
In one case no clue whatever was found.
DIARRHŒA.
The most unsatisfactory part of my report is the high mortality
from zymotic diarrhoea, the number of deaths of infants
and young children from this disease, viz., 24, being exactly
the same as in the year 1903. This is excessive and calls for
serious consideration. It is true that the mortality from diarrhoea
in London and the Outer Ring in the third quarter of
the year was also very heavy, but when one considers that in
Bromley we are dealing with a district which has many advantages
fr 111 a healih oi t of view compared with a large
citv with its overcrowding, poverty, and slums, we cannot be
satisfied that everything possible has been done to cope with
this dread disease.
In the autumn, owing to the great prevalence of diarrhœa and
the large number of deaths, I made a special report on the
subject. The source of milk supply was ascertained in each
of the fatal cases, but nothing was found to prove that any one
supply was specially in fault.