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CAUSES OF DEATH.
Tables IV. and. IVa. give the principal causes of death.
Table V. gives a list of the deaths of persons belonging to the District in outlying Public
Institutions.
PHTHISIS OR CONSUMPTION.
The number of deaths from Phthisis during the year was 84, equivalent to a death-rate of
2.86 per 1,000. The rate diminished from 3.11 in 1898 and 2.99 in 1899.
For St. Sepulchre and Glasshouse Yard the number of deaths from phthisis was 5, equal to a
death-rate of 2.31 per 1,000.
The corresponding rate for London was 1.71.
In 1899 it was 1.82 and in 1898 it was l.72.
PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION.
Although Sanitary improvements have already done much, there are still about 60,000 deaths
annually in England and Wales from Consumption and other forms of tuberculosis. In London
there were in 1899, 8,510 deaths from Consumption alone. The corrected annual average of the
preceding ten years was 8,453, or rather less. It has been estimated that in any year there are five
times as many persons as the deaths that are suffering from the disease.
It is known that this terrible waste of life with all the protracted suffering attending it, and
the distress, moral and material which it involves, is in great measure preventable.
Years ago Farr gave £156 as the average value of each human life in England. The value
in London is now probably more than £200. Taking it at this figure, the loss to London during the
past ten years by deaths from all forms of tuberculosis may be estimated at more than £20,000,000
(twenty million pounds),
In addition therefore to humanitarian reasons there are powerful financial and economic reasons
for its prevention.
VOLUNTARY NOTIFICATION.
In order that preventive measures may be carried out by the Council in individual cases, the
Council must have information of their existence.
Voluntary notification was begun in the City of New York, March 1st, 1894, and in January,
1897, the notification was made compulsory. In New York the following numbers of cases of
consumption were notified voluntarily:-
In 1894 4,166 cases.
In 1895 5,824 cases.
In 1896 8,334 cases.
So that the system cannot be said to be impracticable or unsuccessful.