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The deaths from influenza in the metropolis numbered 895, as compared with 664
in 1905, 707 in 1904, 644 in 1903, 1,036 in 1902, 664 in 1901, and 1,950 in 1900.
The deaths were most numerous during March, April and December.
TUBERCULOSIS.
Tuberculosis (see Appendix, Table VI., Nos. 29 to 34 inclusive) resulted in 347
deaths, as compared with 321 in 1905, 365 in 1904, 376 in 1903, 295 in 1902, 363
in 1901, and 343 in 1900. The deaths from tuberculosis amounted to 15 per cent,
of the deaths from all causes during the year. The death-rate from tuberculosis was
3.0 per 1,000 inhabitants, as compared with 2.7 in 1905, and 3.1 in 1904. Phthisis
or consumption, the form of the disease affecting the lungs, accounted for 233 deaths,
the death-rate being 2.0 per 1,000 inhabitants. Of the persons dying from phthisis,
138 were males and 95 females, the great majority being in the wage-earning period of
life.
Some 6,775 persons died from consumption in the metropolis, yielding a
death-rate of 1.4 per 1,000 population. The figures indicate that the mortality
from phthisis amongst persons belonging to Shoreditch during 1906 was over
40 per cent, higher than in London as a whole. Disinfection after phthisis
cases is undertaken by the Sanitary Authority, and was carried out in connection
with 80 houses in which phthisis cases had occurred during the year.
TETANUS, OR LOCKJAW.
Two cases of the above disease came under notice during the year. One of
the cases was that of a man aged 42, who scratched one of his feet with a
nail in the boot, about the middle of February. The scratch began
to give him pain about February 20th, which caused him to poultice
it. Five days later he was suffering from pains and stiffness in his back, neck
and chest, and was removed to hospital, where he died on February 26th. The second
had been in poor health for several months. In the early part of May, whilst attending
to his horse, he scratched the little finger of his left hand, and about a week or ten
days later he began to complain of his neck being stiff and painful. He was admitted
to the Shoreditch Infirmary on May 17th, and died four days later. In each of these
cases the cause of death was certified to have been tetanus.
CEREBRO SPINAL FEVER.
There were no deaths certified as due to the above disease, nor were any cases of
illness brought under our notice as cerebro spinal fever. The deaths certified as due
to meningitis not stated to be tuberculous, numbered eighteen, and were below the
average for the past five years.