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11
year, more especially in view of the fact that the Registrar
General reports 3,697 deaths from this cause, against 2,633 for
the preceding year, being equal to a death-rate of 0.82 per 1,000
as compared with 0.61, the average rate for 10 years. The
Registrar-General remarks that in London, Measles appears to
have been more fatal last year than in any previous year on
record, with the single exception of 1864.
Diarrhcea was certified as the cause of death in 49 instances,
of which 45 related to children under 5 years of age. This
number, although in excess of our usual record, is more favourable
than that for the year 1895, when 63 deaths were so
registered; further, the number is not out of proportion to the
deaths from the same cause throughout the Metropolitan area,
in which the smallest number occurred during the first quarter
of the year, viz., 129, the second quarter the number rose to
269, during the third quarter as many as 2,624 deaths were
registered, after which the number fell to 201 during the fourth
quarter, making a total for the year of 3,223 cases, against
3,600 cases for 1895, and 1,780 for 1894.
Influenza.—Only three deaths were ascribed to Influenza
during the year, whereas during the preceding year nine deaths
were so recorded. This decrease corresponds with the experience
throughout London, the returns for which show that 496
deaths were referred to the same cause, a number smaller than
any year since 1890, the first year of the epidemic in London.
Phthisis—Although not the highest in point of numbers;
St. Luke occupies an unenviable position in the list of Metropolitan
sanitary areas with respect to deaths from Consumption.
During the past year 89 deaths took place within the Parish
from this cause—33 of these occurred at the Royal Hospital for