Well kids, it’s time for the measles again.

That’s what city health statistics and the reports of medical doctors show anyway.

Round figures from the health department show that the city’s last measles epidemic was in 1942 when 1,427 cases were reported. The next year 312 cases were reported and subsequent years showed marked decrease in this children’s ailment.

There are 6,650 children under the age of eight who have never had this ailment.

Measles run in cycles. They travel like wildfire through children’s circles — schools, Sunday schools, playrooms — and when they have done a thorough job in a community they hang back until a fresh bunch victims circulate. So statistics show.

The 1942 epidemic was one of the biggest the city has ever known, a health official stated. A cycle is approximately four years.

In fact, over the last seven years the City Health Bureau has quarantined 2,750 cases of measles, but for the same period there have been 9,400 births in Williamsport. This would indicate that 6,650 youngsters of pre-school and primary school age can be considered susceptible if an epidemic of measles started in this city.

Birth records show an especially large number of babies born here during 1942 and 1943, which a statistician might deduce will provide a record number of prospects for the next measles flare-up.