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REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON.
FOE, DECEMBER, 1870.
No. CLXXXIY.
Notwithstanding the very cold weather which prevailed during the
last three weeks of December, our mortality has differed little from that
of December, 1868 and 1869. The total deaths registered were 432.
In 1869, they were 437, in 1868 (corrected) 435, and in 1867, 460
deaths.
The main feature of the month has been the continued prevalence of
Scarlet fever, and the alarming increase of Small-pox. The latter has
attained the full proportions of an epidemic demanding the adoption
of the most energetic measures for its suppression, In the month
of November I registered only 36 cases. In the five weeks of
December, the public practice of the Parish alone included 104 cases,
and probably among all classes of our population not fewer than 250
cases happened. I hear of it on all sides, in the houses of the well to
do as well as those of the poor, and it is taxing the strength and resources
of the Sanitary Department of the Vestry to the utmost; for we
have to deal with an epidemic of Scarlet fever at the same time. It
speaks well for the vaccination of the Parish, that comparatively very
few young children are included in my list of cases; the large majority
of patients being persons between 12 and 25 years of age. As I have
over and over again pointed out, we might defy Small-pox as an
epidemic, if, in addition to the universal vaccination of infants, we
could secure the re-vaccination of all young persons on their arriving
at 15 or 16 years of age. But the vaccination arrangements are not in
the hands of the Vestry; the Board of Guardians have full powers of
dealing with this protective measure, and a memorandum has been
issued to them by the Privy Council, urging them to put all their
powers into exercise, and to make special provisions adapted to the