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The prevalent diseases which caused great mortalities were Hooping
Cough and Scarlet Fever.
The deaths from Hooping Cough which were 43 in number in the first
quarter, rose to 73 in the second quarter, then sank to 65 in the third
quarter, and 40 in the fourth quarter: 221 children died from this disease
in the course of the year, or 1 in 1,014 of the population; whilst in 1868,
the deaths were only 128, or 1 in 1,717 of the population.
The deaths from Scarlet Fever sank from 52 in the first quarter to 29
in the second; they then rose to 55 in the third, and 103 in the fourth
quarter: 47 children dying from this disease in the month of November
alone. A high rate of mortality has been maintained from the malady
throughout the winter months. Perhaps St. Pancras has never been visited
by a severer epidemic of Scarlet Fever.
RELAPSING FEVER.
In the autumn of the year under review, much alarm was felt, not only
in St. Pancras, but throughout the metropolis, at the re.appearance of
Relapsing Fever—a disease which had been lost sight of in this country for
several years. This disease seems to have appeared in St. Pancras at the
end of May last, but to have remained for some time unrecognized as a
specific form of Fever. In October, November, and December, the number
and nature of the cases sent to the London Fever Hospital were such as to
excite apprehensions that this not highly mortal, but eminently pauperising
disease, was about to lay hold on large numbers of the poorer inhabitants.
At one time it seemed as if Hospital accommodation was about to fail.
Happily at this juncture the South Hampstead Fever Hospital was opened;
and though the beds there have been taxed to the utmost, this has not been