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as compared with previous years, to which Scarlet Fever has
been prevalent during the present year in your Sanitary
District.
I beg to report that during the last ten years the deaths
from Scarlet Fever in Bermondsey have been as follows :—ln
1877, 21; 1878, 42; 1879, 102; 1880, 102; 1881, 56; 1882,
47; 1883, 101; 1884, 48; 1885, 23; 1886, 16, the mean yearly
number being 56. The number of deaths during the present
year, registered up to Saturday last, has been 35. If the same
proportion prevails to the end of the year the number will be
42. In the absence of any general notification of cases of
infectious disease, it is not possible to form a trustworthy
estimate of the total number of cases, as the rate of mortality
varies in different years and at different seasons.
On the subject of Compulsory Notification of Infectious
Diseases I am fully in accord with the resolution unanimously
adopted by the Society of Medical Officers of Health at their
Annual Meeting on the 21st of October, at which I was present.
Without this the Sanitary Laws are imperfect and partial in
their application, and are deprived of more than half the power
which they would otherwise possess in protecting the public
against the spread of infectious diseases.
November 21st, 1887.
During the fortnight that ended on the 12th day of November
the number of births registered in the Parish was 115, and the
number of deaths, 82. These figures shew an annual birth
rate of 33, and an annual rate of mortality of 23.5 per 1,000 of
the estimated population. The corresponding death rate in
London was 20.4.
From Diseases of the Zymotic class there were 11 deaths,
viz.:—Two from Measles; eight from Scarlet Fever; and one
from Diphtheria.
The deaths from Diseases of the Respiratory Organs were
28, of which 22 were referred to Bronchitis, and six to
Pneumonia.
Tubercular Diseases caused 13 deaths, viz.: —Phthisis, eight;
Meningitis, three; and Tabes Mesenterica, two.