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5. The deaths that occurred each week and quarter appear on Table II. In all
but the summer quarter the mortality was less than in the corresponding quarter of
last year. The high mortality of the summer was mainly attributable to the influence
of the excessively high temperature of July. (See Monthly Report No. XXVIII.)
6. Of the 2670 persons, of whose death I possess the record, 1215 or 41.7 per cent.
were under five years of age, a proportion less than in any previous year. The
infant deaths in the three previous years respectively amounted to 1066, 1108 and
1238. It follows that in 1859 these deaths were less than in 1858 by 23. The deaths
under one year were in 1856, 612; in 1857, 642; in 1858, 648; and in 1859, 665.
CAUSES OF DEATH.
a. Zymotic Diseases.
7. Of the 2670 deaths recorded in Table I., 746, viz. 404 in the West Sub-district and
342 in the east, arose from diseases included in the zymotic class. Of these, 519
occurred in children under 5 years of age, 200 of whom where under one year. The
zymotic mortality then among children was only one more than last year, and for all
ages corresponded to 27.9 per cent. of all the deaths in the Parish, or in the West subdistrict
to 28.9 per cent. and in the East to 26.8 per cent. The greatest zymotic
mortality occurred in the summer quarter, and amounted to a total of 253, the highest
number of either of the three preceding years being 196. The mean temperature
of the quarter was 3.3 degrees above the average, and that of the second week of
July was 9.3 above the mean cf 43 years. The highest weekly zymotic mortality, viz.:
32, (mainly the result of diarrhœa) occurred in the third week of July. In the fourth
quarter again the zymotic mortality was very high, viz. 202; but this was the effect
of an epidemic of scarlet fever.
I will now refer to the progress of the most important of these diseases during
the year, taking them in the order of greatest mortality.
8. Scarlet Fever. It will be recollected that in 1858 this disease began to present
an epidemic character towards the beginning of the summer, and after destroying
103 persons, suddenly subsided in the month of December. In the course of 1859,
however, it destroyed in Islington 216 persons (128 in the West and 88 in the East
sub-district) of whom 138 were under 5 years of age. The increase of the disease
was gradual through the year, during the first thirteen weeks it carried off 28 persons,
during the second 33, during the third 55, and during the fourth 101, the mortality
amounting in the last quarter to as many as 9, 10 and 12 weekly. It did its worst
in the month of November. Of all parts of the parish none suffered from it so
fearfully as Sidney Grove in St. Peter's Ward. In this place 7 deaths occurred from
scarlet fever out of a population of only about 224 persons, or one out of every 32
individuals. The total mortality of this place, from all causes, for the year was 13,
which is equal to one out of every 17 individuals or at the rate of 58 in the 1000
inhabitants. The cause of all this is most apparent in the construction of most of
the houses, the staircases of which are so arranged as to bid defiance to any
circulation of air, while the back rooms, which are used as sleeping rooms, have
neither window nor fire place, and only communicate by small folding doors with the
front rooms: each floor being occupied by a single family, no effectual separation of the
sick from the healthy is possible, but on the admission of a case of infectious disease
all are compelled to breathe the same poisonous atmosphere, which no effort on the
part of the inhabitants can avail to purify or dilute.