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60
1902]
DIARRHŒA.
There were only 99 deaths entered against Diarrhoea as compared with
an average of 217 in the preceding seventeen years. Thus there was a decrease
of 118, or more than 54 per cent. on former years.
The death-rate was 0.29 per 1.000, as compared with 0 49 in the six
boroughs which encircle Islington. Of these, Hornsey alone showed a lower
death-rate, namely 0.08 per 1,000, while the death-rates of the other sanitary
areas were as follows:—St. Pancras, 0.35, Stoke Newington, 0.34, Hackney,
0.42, Finsbury, 0.67, and Shoreditch, 1.08. In England and Wales the deathrate
was 0.38 per 1,000 in the 76 Great Towns, 0.54, in the 103 Other Large
Towns, 0.35, in Rural England, 0.22, in London, 0.35, in Bristol, 0.38 in
Birmingham, 0.71 in Manchester, 0.53 in Liverpool, 0.94 in Leeds, 0.60
and in Sheffield 0.56. Thus the Islington death-rate stands out as
exceedingly low, being 46 per cent. below that of the Great Towns, and
23 per cent. below that of England and Wales.
This is a matter for great satisfaction, for there is no disease which,
by its presence or absence, so markedly points to bad or good sanitary
conditions, all other things being equal.
For many years the death-rate from Diarrhoea in Islington has been
uniformly low in comparison with other places, although of course it has
fluctuated considerably according as the summers have been cold or hot and
wet or dry.
There is no doubt that the favourable weather conditions, that is to say,
the lesser temperature and the increased rainfall that occurred in the third
or Diarrhoea quarter of the year, was mainly the cause of the decreased death
returns from the disease. Thus in July the temperature was more than
3 degrees below that of 1901, in August it was 4.5 degrees, and in September
0.4 degrees. On the other hand, although there was one inch more rain in
July, 1901, yet in August, 1902, matters were reversed for there was 1.37 more
inches of rain than in 1901, and again in September 1.53 inches excess. (Vide
Table L). So also the ground temperatures in the third quarter were uniformly
less in 1902 than in 1901, and as these greatly affect the returns from Diarrhoea,
it is no wonder that they were lower than usual not only in Islington but
throughout the country.
Only 5 deaths were registered in the first quarter, and the same number
in the second, but 63 occurred in the third quarter, and 26 in the fourth. Of
the latter the greater portion was registered in the first few weeks of the
quarter.