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75
Zymotic Diseases.—It will be seen that we had 22
deaths from Zymotic or Epidemic disease during the
year, exactly the same number as last year, and distributed,
as then, over seven of the sub-classes of the
group. For the sake of better comparison in this important
class of diseases, I have drawn out the Table
which follows and which comprises the seven chief
epidemic diseases.
Years. 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877
Small-pox. 1 ... ... ... 1 ... ... ... ... 1 ...
Measles ... 1 5 4 1 ... 2 3 ... 1 2
Scarlatina. 1 2 6 3 21 7 ... ... ... 3 6
Diphtheria 2 1 2 1 1 1 ... 1 4 ... 1
Whooping-
cough 9 ... 6 3 1 6 1 ... 9 7
Typhus,&c. 3 2 5 ... 1 ... 2 ... ... ... 4
Diarrhœ & Cholera 14 5 7 8 6 5 1 6 7 5 7
Totals ... 20 11 31 19 32 19 6 10 20 19 20
No death has occurred from Small Pox during the
year; but to speak of that with much satisfaction is of
course impossible. The disease was amongst us in all its
loathsomeness and characteristic danger, and at a time too
when we were ill-prepared to meet and arrest its progress.
Hospital accommodation, especially for the non-pauper
class, was scanty, and the only means of conveyance
consisted of the Workhouse Ambulance, deficient,
difficult to be got, and degrading to the feelings. In dealing
with cases of infectious disease, we find our greatest
enemies are prejudice, pride, and parsimony, and unless
we can satisfy the sufferer and friends that we can safely,
decently, and economically remove the case to Hospital,