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9
The. Lewisham District, 1872.
The year 1872 was characterized by an unusually mild
temperature and heavy rainfall.
The prevalent fatal zymotic diseases were diarrhoea, which
destroyed 36 lives; scarlet fever, which destroyed 39 lives;
and hooping rough, to which 35 deaths were attributed.
Typhus, the fever of overcrowding, caused only one death;
and enteric fever, caused by pollution of the atmosphere, the
soil. or drinking-water, by sewage matter; caused 11 deaths.
The mortality from zymotic disease (more fully shown
in Table V.), however, only represents a tithe of the suffering
occasioned; as for every one who dies of epidemic disease,
many have passed through the disease and more or less
recovered. And it thus points out how necessary it is to
secure to the people the blessings of pure air, both external
to habitation*, as well as internal to them; pure drinking
water; facilities for personal and domestic cleanliness; us
well as hygienic measures of every kind; by which means
health and strength may be promoted, and without which
suffering, pauperism, and death result.
Table V. gives the number of deaths which have taken
place from certain epidemic diseases during the last 14 years.
TABLE V.
Year.
Smallpox.
Measlcs.
Scarlatina.
Dipthcria.
Hooping
Cough.
Cholera.
Diarrhœa.
Fever.
Total.
1859
2
9
32
7
19
—
13
13
95
1860
7
19
8
7
4
—
2
18
65
1861
2
—
5
12
14
—
13
14
60
1862
13
21
10
7
—
12
16
79
1863
3
29
19
6
14
—
17
11
99
1864
8
10
36
10
IS
1
29
19
128
1865
5
9
13
7
14
32
16
96
1866
5
21
12
21
32
10
23
11
135
1867
14
3
9
8
16
—
25
26
101
1868
–
34
77
6
8
—
29
25
179
1869
1
14
40
7
n
—
15
28
132
1870
1
3
70
8
14
—
48
22
166
1871
19
26
25
8
16
—
41
17
152
1872
5
9
39
10
35
1
36
14
149
72
199
406
127
235
12
335
250
1636