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Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3101, 25 January 1879, Page 2

It is with regret we notice that the mortality of infants seems to show no diminution in this district, generally considered a healthy one, and certainly always shown to be such in the Registrar General's returns published monthly. The cause of so many deaths of infants, and children who have passed the infantile stage, does not appear to be traceable to any in* fectious disease, or the Local Board of Health would have been notified of the fact. The cases of scarlatina which were reported proved to be of an exceedingly, mild character, and have not spread. Whooping cough is prevalent, but also in a mild form, and we do not hear of any fatal cases. Wbat, then, can be the disease that has proved fatal to

so many little ones of late P In several cases that we have heard of, the symptoms have been so similar that we almost feel inclined to pronounce the disease to be endemic. Is it defective drainage, bad water, or some insidious exhalation from the soil? The complaint is not confined to any particular street, but pervades the district, and it is serious enough to demand attention. The Local Board of Health and the Medical Officer to the Board should, we think, commune together, and see if they cannot discover the cause; and if it be that the prevailing disease is due to the laches of local bodies in the matter of drainage, public opinion should be strong enough to insist upon a little more attention being given, and that immediately, to the sanitary condition of the town.