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must go to some hospital, determined to accompany him to Stockwell,
and they were so well pleased with the hospital, and with the
child's treatment therein, as to have spontaneously declared that in
the event of their ever having infectious disease in their family
again they would seek the assistance afforded by the establishment
of the hospital in question. I may be permitted to make two
observations on this case—(1st.) That but for the arrangement your
Vestry entered into with the authorities of the London Fever Hospital,
the child would not have been removed; and (2nd) that but
for his prompt removal we might, and most probably would, have
had many cases in the house in which he lived, and in the locality,
whereas, happily, there has not been a single additional case. The
room was disinfected, and the disease was stamped out. In marked
contrast to the foregoing case, I may mention another. A child
aged four or five years, was taken ill of the same disease, scarlet
fever. The parents and three children, of whom the sick boy was
the eldest, occupied one very large room. We endeavoured to remove
the child to the hospital, but the parents resolutely refused to
let him go, and the father took another lodging for himself in order
to increase the space available for the sick child. This child recovered,
but, unfortunately, after the lapse of several days the second
child, aged two years and a-half, took the infection and died, and
the infant also fell ill. It is not too much to say that had the first
child been promptly removed, and proper measures for disinfection
adopted, as in the case first referred to, the second and third
children would have escaped, and the parents would have been
spared a great trouble, to say nothing of the labour, the anxiety,
and the expense entailed by so much sickness.
POPULATION.
The estimated population at the middle of the year was 143,500,
an increase of 5,500 during the year, viz., 1,692 the excess of
births over deaths, and 3,808 the gain by immigration. The Town
sub-district contained about 108,250, and Brompton 35,250. The
males were approximatively 58,400, and the females 85,100; excess
of females 26,700. The subjoined table shows the number
of persons of each sex arranged in groups of ages at the census,
1871.