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REPORT
ON THE
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR JANUARY, 1870.
No. CLXXIII.
We commence the new year with a mortality in the parish considerably
below the average. The deaths registered were 379, the mean
corrected mortality of the preceding ten Januaries being 434. The
sickness table shows a total of public cases rather over that of January
last year, and very much larger than was observed in previous years.
The general distress among the poor will account for a good deal of this.
It is satisfactory to observe that a further great reduction has taken
place in the public cases of scarlet fever, the number of cases beng 29
in the four weeks, against 50 in the five weeks of December. The
registered mortality from this disease throughout the parish has fallen
also from 68 to 41. Some distressing instances of a local outbreak of
this disease in Highbury have, however, come to my knowledge, and I
have taken such steps to inquire into the cases, and to reassure the
inhabitants, as appeared to me appropriate. In the course of the month
complaint was made to me of the practice of carrying the bodies of
infants to the burial ground in mourning coaches, and a special instance
was given me in which this dangerous proceeding was adopted in the
case of a child who had died of scarlet fever. The case is still under
investigation, but I mention it now because the public and undertakers
should both be made aware of the fact that the practice is unsafe and
calculated to spread a fatal disease. The next case of the kind that
comes under my notice, after this warning, will probably be dealt with
by the Sanitary Committee in the manner that the Sanitary Act directs.
Relapsing fever has declined in Rose and Crown Court, where only
two cases occurred during the month in families previously affected.
The convalesents, however, are sadly weakened, and require to be well
supported. Two fresh cases also occurred at a house in Windsor Street.
They were the parents of a young man, a porter in the city, who first
underwent a slight attack; all the four cases are in the hospital. The
house in Windsor Street is undergoing a thorough purification, but the