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slight attacks of the disease. In one case the child
lived at a dairy, but no spread of the disease
occurred after she was isolated. The surrounding
districts seem to have been equally free from the
disease, but one case was sent into the Workhouse
Infirmary from New Maiden and three from
Hampton Wick.
Diphtheria.
Forty-two cases have been notified, 29 being
under 10 years of age and 8 adults contracted the
disease from children. The greater number of
cases occurred in the second quarter of the year and
were generally of a mild character. I attribute the
absence of this disease in an epidemic form to the
notification of suspicious cases. This has enabled
the authority to isolate mild cases and enquire into
the absence of children from the schools attended
by patients. In many of these suspicious cases the
disease, though mild, was infectious, spreading to
other members of the family. Had these children
been allowed to mix with other children at schools,
it is probable that further outbreaks might have
occurred.
Seven deaths were registered, giving a case
mortality of 166 per cent. In a large number of
the fatal cases death occurred almost as soon as
medical aid was called in. There was indifferent
sanitation in a few of the cases and bad water in one
case, but the majority of the cases arose in modern
houses, built on concrete foundations, with drains
well laid and good sanitary appliances, with nothing
to account for local origin and no traceable
contagion. Two cases in a road of better class
houses arose two or three days after the opening up
of a choked drain midway between the two houses
attacked. The child in each case had run into the
garden to look at the opening in the ground.