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Fever from 11 to 16; but it is somewhat remarkable that
the deaths from Diarrhœa, notwithstanding the Cholera
visitation of the past year, have diminished, the relative
numbers in the two years being 20 in 1865, and only 13
in 1866, making a difference of 7 in favour of the cholera
year.
With regard to Small-pox, I can only repeat the observation
made in my last report, to the effect, that the
scepticism of thoughtless and unreflecting persons still
proves as great a drawback as ever to the proper employment
of vaccination.
I may here mention, that although the births of 711
children were registered in the Sub-district in 1866, the
parents of 274 only sought the performance of the operation
at my hands, as the Public Vaccinator, in that year, and
even of these 22 were re-vaccinations, and as many as 30
first vaccinations of persons varying in age from 2 to 16
years, many of the latter having been doubtless frightened
into a compliance with the law by hearing of, or witnessing,
the sufferings of their relatives, friends, or neighbours, ill
of the disease.
The deaths from Fever in 1866 have been more numerous
than in any of the previous 10 years referred to in the
table, and this may possibly be owing, as suggested by one
of my colleagues, to the generation of some peculiar
miasma by a combination of influences in active operation
whilst new sewers and drains are being constructed on a
large scale. This theory is rendered all the more probable
by the fact that in Putney, on the completion of the town
portion of the great intercepting sewer and its contributary
drainage, the deaths from Fever fell from 8 in the year
1865 to one only in 1866, and further, that the number of
cases of this malady treated amongst the union poor fell
from 29 in 1866 to none in the year under review, which
is a very remarkable circumstance.
I look forward with strong hopes of being able, at no
distant day, to report a similar result in my own Sub-district
upon the completion of the remaining portion of the drainage,
which the authorities have wisely resolved to carry out
in connection with the great intercepting sewer.