Though the typhoid epidemic at Croydon, which appears at last
to be ending, has not reached the size of other recent outbreaks—there were 235 cases in 1932 at Malton, York- shire, and 718 two years ago at Bournemouth—yet it has proved sufficiently serious to require an investigation into its causes by the Ministry of Health and to provoke anxious enquiry into the efficiency of municipal medical and sanitary services. The immediate source of the outbreak. appears to have been a contaminated well, which has now been closed for nearly three weeks, so that no more direct cases are likely to occur. Though the spread of the disease is not easy to prevent, owing to the difficulty of locating its source and because infection may be carried by persons who are themselves immune, suggesdons have been made that there has been a serious lack of co-operation between the municipal medical and sanitary authorities and those who practise in the hospitals and homes of the community. The suggestion is of more than local importance ; the British Medical Association has indicated that these unsatisfactory conditions obtain in the vast majority of municipal medical services. It is to be hoped therefore that the investigation will give close consideration to the case for closer co-operation between local health authorities and the medical profession.
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