Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]
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Comparative Tables for 1877 and 1878 are also appended.
1879 | 1878 | 1877 | |
---|---|---|---|
Measles | 47 | 6 | 47 |
Scarlatina | 44 | 19 | 18 |
Diarrhœa | 43 | 71 | 47 |
Whooping Cough | 39 | 63 | 26 |
Fevers | 13 | 12 | 17 |
Metria | 12 | 2 | 8 |
Croup | 9 | 12 | 10 |
Diphtheria | 6 | 4 | 1 |
Erysipelas | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Small Pox | 1 | 5 | 28 |
Total | 218 | 194 | 206 |
Zymotic death-rate per 1,000 per annum | 3.9 | 3.7 | 4.3 |
The mortality from Measles and its complications
heads the list of fatal terminations of diseases of the epidemic
class, and includes 47 deaths. In 1878 the number was
but 6, while in 1877 the mortality was 47, identical with
that of the year under report. This disease is one over
which preventive medicine possesses at present but very
slight control, the generally favourable termination of
non-complicated cases rendering parents as a rule somewhat
unapprehensive of its occurrence in families. The fatality
of the disease is undoubtedly greatest during cold and
wet years, as pneumonia, the most grave complication,
will then most frequently supervene.
Scarlatina was unusually prevalent and correspondingly
fatal, 44 deaths having been registered from this
disease and its sequelœ. Damp and ungenial weather would