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19
There is great difficulty in keeping the apparatus for flushing
the closets of tenement houses in good order, which is indeed
one of the reasons for the regular inspections carried out in
these and other houses in the poorest parts of the district.
Diphtheria.—I have already referred at some length to the
outbreak of this disease in the middle of the year, and therefore
have now chiefly to report its progress in the district as a whole.
There were comparatively but few cases reported here in 1887
until October, when I received notice of 7; in November there
were only 5, and in December, 6. In January, February and
March, 1888, 7 were reported in each month, 9 in April, 27 in
May, 12 in June, 5 in July, 11 for each month of August and
September; 3 in October, 22 in November, and 4 in December,
so that the disease was never absent during the year. In November
4 cases occurred in the first week, at one house in Windsor
Road; 4 in the middle of the month in another house in
Wharf Road, which is considerably more than a mile from
Windsor Road; 4 eases in another house in Homer Road, South
Hackney, at a distance from both, a few days later; and 3
cases in Seal Street, Shacklewell at the same time. No other cases
occurred in the neighbourhood of these houses, and the cause of the
infection could not be ascertained. The number of deaths in
1888 was 72, against 35, 46 and 47 in the three preceding
years, the average for the 10 years 1878-87 being nearly 32
per annum. The sanitary defects discovered on inspection have
already been mentioned.
Whooping Cough has for many years past caused a large
number of deaths, the annual average for the 10 years 1878-87
being nearly 111, and in 1888 no fewer than 134 deaths were
registered from this disease. Death, however, does not afford
a satisfactory measure of the injury done by whooping cough,
as it frequently leaves the patient with damaged lungs and in
a very depressed state of health. The infection of whooping
may be spread before the disease becomes sufficiently advanced