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18
Medical Officers of Health Annual Report.
Influenza.—45 deaths are referred to this cause. It is
a smaller number than in any year since 1890 when the
disease first reappeared ; since the close of the year, however,
there has been a terrible recrudescence.
Diarrhoea, as was to be expected from the unusually
cool summer and autumn, was not so fatal as usual.
Only 59 deaths were due to it, compared with 114 in the
previous year.
In connection more especially with the spread of smallpox
a Conference was summoned in July by the Public
Health and Housing Committee of the London County
Council, consisting of representatives of Sanitary Authorities,
County Councils and the Asylums Board, at which
your Board was represented. The subject discussed was
the spread of disease by vagrants, and a series of resolutions
were, after much debate, adopted. To carry them
into force alterations of the law would be needed, but such
a Conference will no doubt strengthen the case for such
alteration.
Deaths from Non -Zymotic Diseases.—Table VII. enables
a comparison to be made with previous years. It is
seen that the deaths from cancer and other tumours have
increased this year, there being 115 deaths compared with
90 last year, and they are more numerous than in any of the
preceding years. Diseases of the tubercular class, consumption,
&c., are much the same as in previous years,
but there is a fall under the head of nervous diseases. The
greatest decrease, however, is under the head of respiratory
diseases, where there were only 340 deaths, the fewest
since 1889. There is also a noticeable decrease under
the head of premature birth, &c., 164 deaths only being
referred to this cause. The low general mortality is
largely due to the small number of deaths from lung
diseases, and this is partly accounted for by the weather.