77. Mr. CHANCELLORasked by what means the cases of typhoid, which on 4th May numbered 963, had been reduced eighteen days later, on 22nd May, to 827, although deaths from typhoid had increased from 100 to 128; and whether the reduction is due to mistakes in diagnosis or to the transfer of typhoid cases to other classifications so as to make the failure of inoculation as a preventive less apparent?
§ Mr. TENNANTI think it would be well if my hon. Friend refrained from suggesting, as he does in the last part of his question, that the medical authorities are guilty of manipulating the statistics in an untruthful, unscientific, and ex parte manner. The reduction in the number of cases as stated for 4th May and as stated for 22nd May is due to the original (i.e., clinical) diagnosis not having been confirmed, in some cases, by the subsequent bacteriological examination, which disclosed that these cases, though originally returned as enteric fever, were not that disease at all.
The House generally and the public at large will hear with satisfaction that inoculation is abundantly proving its efficacy in preventing enteric fever, and in lowering the incidence of death amongst those who are unfortunate enough to contract the disease.