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40
DIPHTHERIA.
Cases of diphtheria (254) and membranous croup (3)
to the aggregate number of 257, were notified, as compared
with 371, 332, and 222, in the three preceding years successively:
viz., 130 in North Kensington, and 127 in South
Kensington. The deaths registered were 42 (against 72, 82,
and 26, in the three preceding years respectively), being 23
below the corrected decennial average (65): 28 of them
belong to the Town sub-district, and 14 to Brompton; 17 to
North Kensington, and 25 to South Kensington. Twentynine
of the deaths were of children under five years of age,
including 3 under one year. Thirty-four of the deaths took place
at hospitals, to which 199 cases were removed. The casemortality
was 163 per cent., against 11.7 in 1898, which was
about the lowest on record. So few deaths from this disease
as in 1898 had not been registered in any year since 1885, the
nearest approach to it being 35 deaths in 1890, and 28 deaths
in 1891.
In London, as a whole, the deaths, including deaths
from membranous croup, were 1,946, and 279 below the
corrected decennial average, as compared with 2,683, 2,261,
and 1,772, in the three preceding years respectively. The
notifications of diphtheria were 13,701, as compared with
13,361. 12,811, and 11,561, in the three preceding years successively.
The cases of diphtheria admitted to hospitals are
stated by the Registrar-General to have been 8,758, and the
deaths in hospitals 1193, a mortality of 13.6 per cent.
Local Outbreaks of Diphtheria.—In the early
part of the year, after the Christmas vacation, there was a
slight outbreak of diphtheria connected with St. Barnabas
and St. Philip's Associated Schools, at Earl's Court Road,
seven cases in all: one case in the boys' department, one case
in the girls' department, and five cases in the infants'