View report page

30
SMALL-POX.
There was no death from small-pox, the corrected decennial
average number being 0.9; nor was any case of the disease
notified. There has been no death from this cause in the
parish since 1893, in which year nine deaths were registered
after a death-free interval of five years. In London 29 cases
were notified, against 979, 225, 104, and 32, in the four preceding
years: 18 cases were admitted to hospitals; three
deaths were registered; the decennial average number, corrected
for increase of population, being 45. During the preceding
ten years the deaths aggregated 428 only, the numbers
being 0, 4, 8, 41, 206, 88, 55, 9, 16, and 1, in the successive
years.
Reduction In Small-Pox Mortality in London.—
The reduction in small-pox mortality has been great since the
Asylums Board adopted the practice of removing the sick to
the country. The Board were first called upon to deal with
the isolation of small-pox patients at the latter part of 1870.
During the ten years 1871-80, some 33,000 cases were admitted
to their hospitals in London. The deaths in these ten
years were 15,539, including 7,912 in 1871, my first year of
office. In May, 1881, the first Camp Hospital was established
at Darenth, and the practice of removing the sick out of
London, then initiated, was gradually perfected, so that since
1885 all cases coming under the care of the Managers have
been treated at the Hospital Ships and the Convalescent
Hospital at Gore Farm. During the ten years 1887-96, the
cases admitted to these hospitals were 5,232, and the deaths
of London people were 429 only: 206 of the deaths were
registered in 1893, in which year 2,376 cases were admitted to
the Managers' hospitals. Had the mortality during these ten
years been at the same rate as in the ten years 1871-80, the
deaths, after correction for increase of population, would have