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92
WHOOPING COUGH.
The deaths attributed to this disorder numbered 60, as compared with 115 in
1896, 83 in 1895, and 86 in 1894. With a single exception all were of children under
five years of age. Complications, especially bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs
were in most instances the immediate cause of death. The death-rate from
whooping cough was 0.49 per 1000 inhabitants, as compared with 0.94 in 1896, 0.67
in 1895, 0.70 in 1894, and 0.54 in 1893.
The deaths due to this disorder registered in the metropolis during the year
numbered 1837, the death-rate being 0.41, as compared with 0.65 for last year.
INFLUENZA.
The deaths registered as due to influenza numbered 16, as compared with 7 in
1896, 57 in 1895, 15 in 1894, and 36 in 1893. The deaths were most numerous in
Shoreditch during the month of April.
In the metropolis 671 deaths were attributed to influenza during 1897; they
were most numerous during the months of March and April.
TUBERCULAR DISEASES.
The above group of diseases (see Appendix, table XXX.) due to the tubercle bacillus
caused 321 deaths or approximately one-eighth of the total number of deaths which
occurred in the parish, the death-rate being 2.65 per 1,000 inhabitants.
The number of deaths from tubercular diseases and the death-rates for the years
1892-96 are contained in the subjoined table:—

Of the 321 deaths registered in 1897, 237 were attributed to phthisis or
consumption of the lungs, 23 to tabes mesenterica or abdominal tuberculosis, the
whole of which were of children under five years, 32 to tubercular meningitis, and 29
to other forms of tuberculosis, including several cases of general tuberculosis.
Phthisis or consumption is an infectious disease. The micro-organisms are given
off, especially in the later stages of the disease, in vast numbers in the material
coughed up by persons suffering from consumption, and it is a preventive measure of