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ENTERIC FEVER.
(Deaths, 14. Decennial average, 22.)
The total number of cases reported during the year was 132, with
fourteen deaths certified as enteric fever and one as simple fever.
The case mortality on the number notified was 11.3 per cent.
The general death rate in the Metropolitan Board Hospitals was
14.2 per cent, on the total admissions. The mortality rate on the
population was 0.11, which is identical with the rate for the whole of
London. The Inspectors report that in 60 instances the premises
were in a fairly satisfactory condition ; in 14 the w.c.'s were defective;
in four the internal drains were faulty, and in two the external
drainage arrangements were unsatisfactory. In one instance the
premises were overcrowded, and other minor insanitary conditions
were found in 62 houses. Ten cases occurred in families inhabiting
one room only. Forty-four of the patients were removed to hospital,
where 12 of them were found upon further examination not to be
suffering from enteric fever at all.
Enquiry was made in each case as to the habits of the sick person
with reference to the eating of shell fish, but no definite statistics
could be obtained. Some of the patients had been in the habit of
eating mussels and winkles, but hitherto oysters have been too expensive
for Bethnal Green, and other shell fish is usually cooked
before it is eaten. I think that the scare which is the result of
recent revelations as to sewage-fed oysters will have produced such
a fall in price as to bring this delicious bivalve within the reach of
many who could not otherwise afford them. It may be that this
fall in price will shift the incidence of typhoid fever from the rich to
the poor.
DISEASES OF PARTURITION
Ten women were reported to be suffering from puerperal fever, of
whom six died. Eight women died from diseases, other than
puerperal fever, incidental to childbirth: the causes of death stated
on the medical certificates were as under :—