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52
1897
We see in Table XXXV. that with the exception of a slight excess of
deaths in the first quarter in South-east Islington, there was no reason
to complain of the returns for the first three quarters. All the rates
were abnormally low, and nothing locally indicated that there would be
so sharp an outbreak in the fourth quarter. And yet Upper Holloway,
which had only one death in the first quarter, and none in either the
second or third quarters, was afflicted with as many as 37 in the fourth,
which were equal to the high death rate of l.47 per 1,000. Almost
identical remarks might be made with respect to South-west Islington,
which was also severely dealt with in the fourth quarter, the death-rate
being 0.78. South-east Islington was the only district that escaped
lightly at this period, for its death-rate was only 0.23 per 1,000.
When, however, one looks to the behaviour of the disease in the
Encircling Districts in the second and third quarters of the year, it can
no longer be a matter of surprise that so many as 72 deaths occurred in
Islington in the fourth quarter. Itisseenin the following table (XXXVII.)
that Measles was more or less prevalent in all of them in the second
and third quarters. This was especially so in Clerkenwell, St. Luke
and Shoreditch in the second quarter, and in Hackney, Clerkenwell,
St. Luke and Shoreditch in the third quarter, at which periods the
Measles-death rate in Islington was abnormally low.