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7
tional loss from zymotic diseases in Shoreditch has been
less than that of London generally.
Cold has been the most active cause of death
during the past quarter. If we add together the deaths
from lung-inflammations and those from phthisis, we
obtain a total of 303 deaths, or .35 of the whole, more
or less determined by cold. In the majority of these
cases, including most of those of children, cold was no
doubt the direct cause of the disease, bronchitis or
pneumonia, which ended in death. In the phthisical
cases, and many bronchitic cases in old people, although
cold may not have caused the disease, it acted as the
immediate cause of death.
5 deaths are assigned to Diphtheria, a peculiar
throat-disease of zymotic character which first appeared
in Essex last year. It is probable however, that a not
uncommon form of Scarlatina in which sore-throat
appears without the scarlet-eruption on the skin, has
been sometimes mistaken for Diphtheria.
The remaining causes of death do not call for
especial notice. The concluding head, "Not specified,"
embraces the returns from Coroner's Inquests which
failed to ascertain the cause of death.
The sickness-movement as evidenced by the labours