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classes the per-centage of deaths to total deaths was higher than
in 1870, a fact explained by the low general mortality in 1871,
for the actual number of children who died under one, and under
five years of age, was lower than in that year; while the deaths
of aged persons were rather more numerous. In the Appendix
(Table HH.) I have given a comparative analysis of the Mortality
in the Parish, and in London generally, for the whole year.
Table I., in the Appendix, shows the number of deaths from
the principal diseases of the Zymotic class, viz., Small Pox, Measles,
Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Fever (Typhus,
Enteric or Typhoid, and Simple continued), Diarrhoea and
" Cholera." The actual number at present known was 484, viz.,
420 in the Town District, and 64 in the Brompton District.
Reserving for the present my remarks on the Small Pox epidemic
in the hope of obtaining particulars of the deaths in Hospitals, for
whioh reason also I have inserted the Table referred to, in the
Appendix, I pass on to state that the mortality from
Measles (64) was below that of 1870 (70), little in excess of the
actual average of 10 years, and considerably below the corrected
average—an observation that applies to several other diseases in
this class. Vide Table J. (Appendix).
Scarlet Fever. The epidemic of this disease, which was the
marked feature of 1869 and 1870, lingered more or less throughout
the year, at times almost dying out and then again showing
a great tendency to increase and spread. The deaths were 95,
a decrease from 198 in the previous year; the numbers in each
of the 4 quarters respectively, being 18, 9, 38 and 30. In
Table K (appendix) the principal places in which the fatal cases of
this disease (and others of the zymotic class) occurred are specified,
and it will be noticed that many were in healthy localities,
on a good class of property occupied by well-to-do people—this
malady being, truly, no respecter of persons. The more favorable
conditions under which the affluent live give them a comparative
immunity from Small Pox, Fever and Diarrhoea. And even with
regard to Measles, Whooping Cough, &c.—diseases the fatality of
which is due, generally, to complications arising in their progress,
complications moreover which may often be avoided by proper
treatment and good hygienic arrangements, the poor are the
greatest sufferers. But scarlet Fever attacks all classes alike : is
most difficult to keep out of houses : and, when once in, its fatality
is scarcely greater in one class than another. It is hard to say by
what means it is spread, but there is much reason to believe that
laundresses are, in many instances, the, it may be innocent, media
for its propagation. It is well, therefore, that it should be known
that to send infected clothes to a laundress is an offence punishable
under the Sanitary Act, 1866. In many cases I have no doubt
that the disease is contracted by children at school or at play
with their fellows—it being difficult to make poor persons