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INFLUENZA.
Influenza was the primary cause of 115 deaths, 87 in the
Town sub-district, and 28 in Brompton; 78 of the deaths
occurred at ages over 55. Fourteen of the deaths occurred in
the four weeks ended 23rd February, and 77 in the four weeks
ended 23rd March. These eight weeks, it will be remembered,
covered the period of the memorable long frost of 1895. In
these same eight weeks 256 deaths were caused by the diseases
of the respiratory organs (including 218 from bronchitis and 24
from pneumonia), or not very many short of a moiety of the
deaths from these causes (574) during the year. It is remarkable
that so few deaths should have occurred from pneumonia,
relatively to the deaths from bronchitis, during these eight
weeks, having regard to the intimate association of influenza
deaths and deaths from pneumonia in previous years of prevalence
of epidemic influenza. It may be mentioned that 1895
was the sixth year in succession, within recent times, of the
occurrence of epidemic influenza in the Metropolis and in many
other parts of the Kingdom. The deaths in London from this
cause in 1895 were 2,156, not fewer than 1,570 of the deaths
having been registered between the middle of February and
the end of March.
Other Diseases of the Zymotic Class.—Thus far I
have dealt with the " seven principal diseases of the zymotic
class," comprising, with Cholera and Influenza, all of those
maladies which in Table III. (Appendix) go to make up Orders
1 and 2 (Miasmatic and Diarrhœal Diseases) of Class 1 in the
Registrar-General's classification, viz., " Specific Febrile or
Zymotic Diseases."
Still dealing with this important Class, it appears that
only one death, viz., from Ague, was registered from a malarial
disease, comprised in Order 3, and no death from Zoogenous
Diseases comprised in Order 4.