5

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considerable amount of work on a busy practitioner—for instance, during the measies epidemic, while that remained a notifiable disease. In the notice from medical man to householder no more than the name of the disease, the date, and the signature is required. The duty of notifying the local body might be thrown on the householder alone. Thus the medical man, if he carried the book of forms with him, could hand the blank form intended for the local body to the householder, directing him to forward it to the proper authority; while at the same time he could fill in and serve the notice on the householder. In all, 4,514 notifications were received during the year. The attached table gives the number of each disease and their place of origin as far as was know li.

Summary of Infectious Diseases notified from 1st April, 1902, to 31st March, 1903.

ENTEEIC FEVEE. Though 217 cases of enteric were notified this year against 181 last, this is scarcely a failcomparison, as notification was not in force in the earlier months last year, and the figures for April and May, 1902, appeared also in my last report. Probably 217 is somewhat below the yearly average, judging from the hospital returns. The accompanying charts show the monthly typhoid returns during 1901 and 1902, compared with the temperature and rainfall curves of their respective years. It would not appear at first from these that the rainfall has exercised much influence on the typhoid rate. Thus, the excessive rainfall of April and May, 1902, was not followed by any unusual decrease. Again, July, 1901, was unusually wet, and in 1902 exceptionally dry and cold, yet in the former year the typhoid returns for August were high, and in the latter year low. November, 1902, was unusually dry, yet there is no excessive rise in December or January, while the rise in February, 1903, was preceded by a very wet January. It is probably, however, fallacious to follow the curves too slavishly as there are several sources of error —thus, a day or two of excessive rain in a month while producing a high return does not necessarily constitute a wet month. We

City, Suburb, or County. Enteric. Fever' Diphtheria. Measles, poisoning. M « £££ «•*»* Auckland City Birkenhead Borough Devon port Borough Grey Lynn Borough Newmarket Borough Onehunga Borough Parnell Borough Arch Hill Road District .. Avondale Road District Eden Terrace Road District Epsom Road District Mount Albert Road District Mount Eden Road District Mount Roskill Road District Mount Wellington Road District One Tree Hill Road District Remuera Road District Cambridge Borough Hamilton Borough Bay of Islands County Coromandel County Hobson County Hokianga County Kawhia County Manakau County Mangonui County Ohinemuri County Waihi Borough Opotiki County Otamatea County Piako County Raglan County Rodney County Rotorua County Thames County Thames Borough Tauranga County Taupo County Waikato County .-. Waipa County Waitemata County Whangarei County Whangaroa County 75 2 10 4 2 7 17 2 86 •2 5 21 4 5 9 11 1 9 2 2 12 3 68 1 5 6 13 5 1,392 104 209 96 76 289 138 45 139 35 33 66 111 17 12 29 i 2 1 2 1 i i i i 48 1 2 1 3 4 3 1 1 4 3 31 1 5 2 3 1 2 1 1 i 6 3 2 i 3 1 8 1 4 1 1 10 1 1 1 6 3 1 1 6 4 2 5 35 2 1 1 7 3 2 28 44 5 1 24 13 25 2 i - i 2 2 1 28 i i 1 2 5 1 10 1 13 6 1 1 11 1 25 2 169 3 3 1 1 i 6 6 2 I 13 1 ■2 2 3 3 150 46 i 3 8 2 2 7 1 2 8 7 1 1 9 7 84 43 43 31 9 i 1 9 8 1 5 16 6 4 5 7 23 i •• 8 2 7 3 9 3 4 28 101 i 1 1 1 2 1 1 5 Totals 217 318 151 3,544 S 54 ' 118 118 108 108 3 .._ 3 City of Auckland .. Suburban Districts Country Districts 75 63 79 86 94 138 68 49 34 1,392 1,526 626 29 12 13 48 52 18 48 52 18 _J 31 27 50 31 2 27 1 50 2 1