§ Mr. CRAWSHAY-WILLIAMSasked the President of the Local Government Board whether any inquiry is made in cases of certified deaths from chicken-pox with a view to ascertain if such cases of deaths in children are in reality due to small-pox and not chicken-pox, as alleged by the Registrar-General in his Forty-sixth and other Reports; and whether such inquiry has confirmed the opinion generally held by medical authorities that deaths from chicken-pox are of very rare occurrence indeed?
§ Mr. BURNSThe doctor who grants a death certificate is required to state the cause of death, and, as a general rule, no inquiry is made to check the correctness of his statement. When small-pox is prevalent in a district, chicken-pox is frequently added to the list of notifiable diseases, with the object of discovering whether any cases supposed to be chicken-pox are really small-pox. In such cases it would rest with the medical officer of health of the district to make such inquiries as he considered necessary in regard to any deaths certified to be due to chicken-pox.