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54
WHOOPING-COUGH.
Whooping-cough was the cause of 65 deaths, 12 below
the corrected decennial average: nine of them were registered
in the Brompton sub-district: all but four were of
children under under five years of age, including 26 under
one year. Nineteen of the deaths were registered in the first
half of the year and forty-six in the latter half-period.
Reference has been made to the carelessness of parents
among the poorer classes in regard to the spread of
measles in their families. The observation is, perhaps, even
more generally applicable in regard to whooping-cough, the
seriousness of this always distressing malady being unappreciated
by the poor, who, in the engrossing struggle of life,
pay scant attention to an ailment which they deem inevitable
and do not regard as being dangerous. Often enough, the
fatal event comes as a surprise, being due commonly to some
intercurrent disease—of the respirator}' organs, or of the
nervous system : few deaths are registered from whoopingcough
alone. These complications cannot always be prevented
; but the occurrence of bronchitis or pneumonia, for
instance, is not seldom due to want of care in the management
of the sufferers. The little ones, it may be, are not
confined to the house : they catch cold: the "cold" and the
"cough" are not differentiated: medical treatment is not
sought until the child is obviously very ill, and, when it
is obtained the patient is but too frequently beyond the
reach of help.
Whooping Cough in London. — The deaths in
London from whooping-cough in 1893, were 2,330, and
443 below the corrected decennial average: they were in
the proportion of 0.54 per 1,000 living, the average proportion
in the preceding decennium having been 0.65.