Page:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, volume 9 (7).djvu/5

 TUANSACriONS OP THE SOCIETY OF TUOriCAL MKDK INK AND iiy(ii:nk. JUNE. 10 K). Volume IX. No. 7. Proceedings of a Meeting of the Society held on Knday, May 19th, 1916, at 5.30 p.m., at 11, Chandos Street, Cavcndisli S(iuare, W., Surgeon-General Sir David Bruce, C.B., A.M.S. (Vice-President), in the Chair. CEKEBKO-SPINAL FEVER, WITH NOTES OF SOME CASES. EJY M.UOR J. M. ATKINSON, ll...M.C. (Officer in Charge, niclDnniuJ Milifari/ llnapih'l).

It occurred to me that a discussion on this disease, which has only become really prevalent in England since the commencement of the War, would prove of interest to the members of this Society.

It is only since the winter of 1914-15 that cerohro-spinal fever has become epidemic in this country.

Prior to this date it was sporadic. This fact is clearly shewn by the Reports of Surgeon-Colonel Reeck, one of the Medical Officers of the Local Government Board, who was deputed to collate and report to the Board annually on its prevalence. There were notified in the civil population in England and Wales, during the year 1913, 279 cases of cerebro-spinal fever; in 1914 there came to notice 300 cases. The greatest incidence fell in children under fifteen years of age (80.6) per cent.). The case fatality was high, the mortality rate being 69.6 per cent, in the former years, and, in 1914, 68.7 per cent.