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40
are rendered peculiarly susceptible to the bacillus of
tuberculosis.
Diarrhoea.
Diarrhoea was the cause of 98 deaths, including 37
registered as due to epidemic or zymotic enteritis. The
death-rate was .5 per 1,000, .3 above the decennial average .8.
The death-rate in the County of London was .53.

Eighty-four deaths, or 85.7 per cent, of the whole, were
of infants under one year, and 10 deaths were of children aged
from one to five years.

The reduction in the number of Diarrhoea deaths from 217
in 1901 to 98 in 1902 is largely explained by the meteorological
conditions prevailing during the summer of the latter year.
Diarrhoea is a disease which is closely dependent on
temperature and rainfall, and attains its greatest virulence in
hot, dry weather. The summer of 1902 was exceptionally
cold and wet, and the diarrhoea mortality exceptionally low.
I have no doubt that the mortality was also influenced by the
Infants Milk Depot, which was opened on June 5th; but the
subject is dealt with at greater length in the special report
on the Depøt in pages
Diarrhoea is due to the contamination of food by bacterialaden
dust, and the food may be contaminated either before
or after reaching the consumer. The disease can be prevented
only by strict cleanliness, and the sanitary authority can do
much in this way by efficient street cleansing and watering,