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INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED OCT. 15TH, 1927.
942
PLACE-IN-FAMILY AND DISEASE. I
suspected
have been within two months in a harbour ; thus much time is saved to them, medical inspection being carried out immediately on arrival. The rats captured and destroyed were, on ships " Audi alteram partem." 36,265, on the quays 2562, and in the city 16,185, in all 55,012, a number 6000 less than in 1925, so PLACE-IN-FAMILY AND DISEASE. perhaps the active and persistent campaign in Liverthe rat is at As To the Editor of THE LANCET. last population. reducing pool usual there were few black rats ashore, few brown SiR,—I have read Dr. Still’s lectures with much rats afloat. No mention is made this year of the interest. It appears to me futile to attempt an in the last new rat-guard for hawsers recommended of this most interesting problem unless investigation report, but valuable original observations by two rat- full account is taken of the healthy-remaining members catchers on the evidences of rat infestation on ships of a given community. Dr. Still clearly sees this are given. Thus they report that one rat in 24 hours as stated on page 796, but I think he brushes difficulty, ate out the soft portions of 425 grains of maize. Now it aside too lightly. Let me illustrate my objection. that is a quarter of a pound, and maize costs 35s. a TABLE I. quarter (480 lb.), so the 18,747 rats killed in Liverpool in city and port in the year, if they had lived there only three months, had already eaten, measured in maize, ;E1550, and the 36,265 in ships, .83000. Besides there is the damage they cause. So the campaign for their reduction has financial value, as well as sanitary or
Correspondence.
reason.
The venereal clinics have this year been attended
by larger numbers ; 1360 new cases were seen in the seamen’s dispensary ; we gather that not all were seamen. Some 15 per cent. attend but once, and another 15 per cent. discontinue treatment before they are non-infectious. Of every 10 cases 3 were syphilis, 6 gonorrhoea, and 1 soft chancre. Lectures are given on the dangers of venereal disease in the the figures are, of course, merely assumptions; first-aid and hygiene courses for mercantile marine nevertheless, they will illumine the point. Leaving cadets, and also to boys elsewhere in the city. The out of account the childless families, neglecting also 17,781 aliens examined were almost all from North here for simplicity’s sake miscarriages and stillAmerica and were clean; only ten certificates of birth, the number of families with one child is evidently rejection were issued. The medical inspection room TABLE n.-Incidence of Disease. wanted last year has been obtained. Half the emiI I I I grants and other passengers leaving Liverpool went to Canada. Verminous transmigrants are dealt with at the city hospitals. Emigrants, second or third class, for the United States are inspected by officers of the U.S. Public Health Service. All emigrants are inspected by the medical officers of the Board of Trade (23 were rejected for infectious disease), also the crews of all vessels bound for America. The new Public Health (Imported Food) Regulations, 1925, have greatly simplified the work of meat inspection ; 340 tons of meat were condemned for faulty preservation, 88 tons of canned goods, 2000 tons of fruit, 2000 tons of cereals. Anyone can see that much illness of many sorts has been spared the public by the largest in every living community, since every the admirable work of this port sanitary authority. family has to begin with one child, and the number of families decreases, as the number of children per family increases. IN FAMILY Let us assume a INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND community of a WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED thousand families, OCT. 15TH, 1927. of whom 400 have cases of infectious one child, 300 have Notifications.-The following disease were notified during the week :-Small-pox, two children each, 124 (last week 149) ; scarlet fever, 2463 ; diphtheria, 200 have three children each, and 100 1271 ; enteric fever, 81 ; pneumonia, 849 ; puerperal have fever, 37 ; puerperal pyrexia, 114 ; cerebro-spinal three more than children, say fever, 4 ; acute poliomyelitis, 23 ; acute polio5. We then average 19 ; dysenencephalitis, 4 ; encephalitis lethargica, the results get 104. case of No tery, 5 ; ophthalmia neonatorum, in Table I. cholera, plague, or typhus fever was notified during shown Now let us the week. assume that there Of the cases of acute poliomyelitis and acute polio- is an incidence of encephalitis taken together, 5 were notified from the East disease unaffected of Yorkshire
All
PLACE
Riding Hull), the
(2 only of these from Kingston-uponremainder distributed widely over the country.
Deaths.-In the aggregate of great towns, including London, there was no death from small-pox, 1 (0) from enteric fever, 14 (0) from measles, 5 (1) from scarlet fever, 6 (3) from whooping-cough, 32 (5) from diphtheria, 72 (12) from diarrhcea and enteritis under 2 years, and 51 (7) from influenza. The figures in parentheses are those for London itself. The number of stillbirths registered during the week was 231 in the great towns, including 34 in London.
by place-in-family,
or age, and that this amounts to 10 per cent. of the children. We then get results as shown in Table II. Entering thesee Dr. Still’s into scnema.
we
geu a
curve, which I show here,
very similar to Dr.
Still’s;
PLACE-IN-FAMILY AND DISEASE. I
suspected
have been within two months in a harbour ; thus much time is saved to them, medical inspection being carried out immediately on arrival. The rats captured and destroyed were, on ships " Audi alteram partem." 36,265, on the quays 2562, and in the city 16,185, in all 55,012, a number 6000 less than in 1925, so PLACE-IN-FAMILY AND DISEASE. perhaps the active and persistent campaign in Liverthe rat is at As To the Editor of THE LANCET. last population. reducing pool usual there were few black rats ashore, few brown SiR,—I have read Dr. Still’s lectures with much rats afloat. No mention is made this year of the interest. It appears to me futile to attempt an in the last new rat-guard for hawsers recommended of this most interesting problem unless investigation report, but valuable original observations by two rat- full account is taken of the healthy-remaining members catchers on the evidences of rat infestation on ships of a given community. Dr. Still clearly sees this are given. Thus they report that one rat in 24 hours as stated on page 796, but I think he brushes difficulty, ate out the soft portions of 425 grains of maize. Now it aside too lightly. Let me illustrate my objection. that is a quarter of a pound, and maize costs 35s. a TABLE I. quarter (480 lb.), so the 18,747 rats killed in Liverpool in city and port in the year, if they had lived there only three months, had already eaten, measured in maize, ;E1550, and the 36,265 in ships, .83000. Besides there is the damage they cause. So the campaign for their reduction has financial value, as well as sanitary or
Correspondence.
reason.
The venereal clinics have this year been attended
by larger numbers ; 1360 new cases were seen in the seamen’s dispensary ; we gather that not all were seamen. Some 15 per cent. attend but once, and another 15 per cent. discontinue treatment before they are non-infectious. Of every 10 cases 3 were syphilis, 6 gonorrhoea, and 1 soft chancre. Lectures are given on the dangers of venereal disease in the the figures are, of course, merely assumptions; first-aid and hygiene courses for mercantile marine nevertheless, they will illumine the point. Leaving cadets, and also to boys elsewhere in the city. The out of account the childless families, neglecting also 17,781 aliens examined were almost all from North here for simplicity’s sake miscarriages and stillAmerica and were clean; only ten certificates of birth, the number of families with one child is evidently rejection were issued. The medical inspection room TABLE n.-Incidence of Disease. wanted last year has been obtained. Half the emiI I I I grants and other passengers leaving Liverpool went to Canada. Verminous transmigrants are dealt with at the city hospitals. Emigrants, second or third class, for the United States are inspected by officers of the U.S. Public Health Service. All emigrants are inspected by the medical officers of the Board of Trade (23 were rejected for infectious disease), also the crews of all vessels bound for America. The new Public Health (Imported Food) Regulations, 1925, have greatly simplified the work of meat inspection ; 340 tons of meat were condemned for faulty preservation, 88 tons of canned goods, 2000 tons of fruit, 2000 tons of cereals. Anyone can see that much illness of many sorts has been spared the public by the largest in every living community, since every the admirable work of this port sanitary authority. family has to begin with one child, and the number of families decreases, as the number of children per family increases. IN FAMILY Let us assume a INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND community of a WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED thousand families, OCT. 15TH, 1927. of whom 400 have cases of infectious one child, 300 have Notifications.-The following disease were notified during the week :-Small-pox, two children each, 124 (last week 149) ; scarlet fever, 2463 ; diphtheria, 200 have three children each, and 100 1271 ; enteric fever, 81 ; pneumonia, 849 ; puerperal have fever, 37 ; puerperal pyrexia, 114 ; cerebro-spinal three more than children, say fever, 4 ; acute poliomyelitis, 23 ; acute polio5. We then average 19 ; dysenencephalitis, 4 ; encephalitis lethargica, the results get 104. case of No tery, 5 ; ophthalmia neonatorum, in Table I. cholera, plague, or typhus fever was notified during shown Now let us the week. assume that there Of the cases of acute poliomyelitis and acute polio- is an incidence of encephalitis taken together, 5 were notified from the East disease unaffected of Yorkshire
All
PLACE
Riding Hull), the
(2 only of these from Kingston-uponremainder distributed widely over the country.
Deaths.-In the aggregate of great towns, including London, there was no death from small-pox, 1 (0) from enteric fever, 14 (0) from measles, 5 (1) from scarlet fever, 6 (3) from whooping-cough, 32 (5) from diphtheria, 72 (12) from diarrhcea and enteritis under 2 years, and 51 (7) from influenza. The figures in parentheses are those for London itself. The number of stillbirths registered during the week was 231 in the great towns, including 34 in London.
by place-in-family,
or age, and that this amounts to 10 per cent. of the children. We then get results as shown in Table II. Entering thesee Dr. Still’s into scnema.
we
geu a
curve, which I show here,
very similar to Dr.
Still’s;