View report page

45
fever, 65; diphtheria, 57; erysipelas, 74; typhoid or enteric fever, 24; membranous
croup, 2; total, 238 cases. All these cases were promptly attended
to, and either isolated, or removed to hospital. I received the cordial
co-operation of their medical attendants, and when the cases could not be
isolated they were often removed by the doctors to hospital within two
hours of the time the disease was detected. The amount paid for these
notification certificates to medical men was £20 17s. 6d.
Diphtheria and Membranous Croup.—Personally, I am unable to make a
differential diagnosis between these two diseases; essentially, although not
topographically, they appear to be identical. In the former distemper, the
false leathery membrane is effused on the tonsils and throat, in the latter, on
the windpipe and larger bronchial tubes.
Of this disease, 59 cases were notified, and 20 died; being 24.8 per
100 cases of infectious diseases notified, against 23 per cent. for the
metropolis.
The deaths last year from these two diseases in London amounted to
2836. These deaths, although fewer by 646 than the number registered
in 1893, nevertheless exceeded by 796 the average number in the ten
preceding years, corrected for increase of population.
THE MORTUARY.
During the year 155 bodies have been removed into it from rooms
inhabited, for the most part, by the living; and on 42 of these corpses
Coroners' inquests have been held.
ALLEGED SALE OF DISEASED MEAT.
Mr. Hazell has stated in Parliament that a large quantity of diseased
and unwholesome meat is sold in the Holborn District just beyond the area
supervised by the Commissioners of Sewers. I trust, therefore, that you
will allow me, as your Chief Meat Inspector from the opening of the
Central Meat Market up to the end of October last, to assure Mr. Hazell
and the public that such was not the case during the time I held office. It
is true, however, that the Commissioners' Meat Inspectors have from time
to time made allegations to that effect, but in no single instance have they
substantiated them. Last year Inspector Terrett publicly stated that he
had seen diseased carcases sold in Charterhouse Street, whereupon your
Board promptly requested the Commissioners of Sewers either themselves