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45
[1903
DEATHS FROM THE PRINCIPAL ZYMOTIC DISEASES.
The principal Zymotic Diseases were no exception to the rule of a decreased
mortality experienced in the returns from the general diseases, for they, too,
showed a very considerable falling off when compared with those of preceding
years. Indeed the returns were, it is believed, the lowest hitherto recorded in
the borough, as they certainly were lower than any recorded since 1885. They
numbered 471, as compared with 831, the corrected average for the eighteen years
1885-1902, or a decrease of more than 43 per cent. This is truly a marvellous
decrease. It has not been, it must be stated, a sudden reduction, for ever
since 1898, when the deaths numbered 933, they have year by year become fewer.
In 1899 there were 781 in number; in 1900, 660; in 1901, 628; and in 1902,
602; and they have now fallen, as stated, to 471.
A most satisfactory feature of the returns is that the reduction in the
mortality has been common to all the Zymotic Diseases, and has not been, as so
often happens, confined to one or two. Thus when compared with the returns
of the preceding eighteen years Small Pox showed a decrease of 11 deaths,
Measles 76, Scarlet Fever 28, Diphtheria 93, Whooping Cough 29, Typhus
Fever 1, Enteric Fever 26, and Diarrhœal Diseases 96. (Vide Table XXVII.)
The 471 deaths were equal to a death-rate of 1.39 per 1,000, the lowest
rate hitherto noted, as against a mean rate of 2.45 experienced in the eighteen
years 1885-1902. (Vide Table XXVI.)
In England and Wales the Zymotic death-rate was 1.46 per 1,000; in the
76 Great Towns 1.89, in 103 Other Large Towns 1.41 in the Rural Districts
of England 1.08, in London 1.76, in Bristol 1.07, in Birmingham 2.33, in
Liverpool 2.51, in Manchester 2.55, in Leeds 1.76, and in Sheffield 3.10.
Coming nearer home it is found that the Zymotic death-rate in St. Pancras
was 1.90 per 1,000, in Stoke Newington 1.46, in Hackney 1.77, in Hornsey 0.65,
in Finsbury 2.32, and in Shoreditch 2.89 per 1,000, the death-rate of these
districts taken together being 1.91 per 1,000.
From these returns we perceive that only the Rural Districts of England,
and Hornsey could boast of a lower death-rate than that of your borough, and
consequently the returns for the year, looked on from every aspect, must be
considered exceedingly satisfactory.