View report page

23
DIPHTHERIA.
The cases notified as diphtheria and membranous croup (classified by the Registrar-General
as diphtheria) were 186, compared with 250, 184 and 160, in the three preceding years; 99 in
North Kensington, and 87 in South Kensington.
The deaths registered were 17 (a case-mortality of 91 per cent.), and 35 below the corrected
decennial average (52); 14 in the Town sub-district, and 3 in Brompton. Fifteen of the deaths
took place in hospitals, to which 158 cases were removed—a case-mortality of 9•5 per cent. Twelve
of the deaths were of children under five years of age, including one under one year. The rate of
mortality was 0•09 per 1,000 of the population.
Detailed information in regard to diphtheria mortality in the borough—1871-1904—is set
out in Appendix II., Tables B, C, and D pp. 118-119.
The deaths in London, as a whole, were 729, and considerably less than a moiety of the
corrected decennial average number (1,922), compared with 1,344, 1,181, and 752, in the three
preceding years. The rate of mortality was 0•16 per 1,000 of the population.
The notifications were 7,224 in number, compared with 12,154, 10,735, and 7,727, in the
three preceding years. The cases admitted to hospital were 4,739, compared with 9,090, 8,086, and
5,113, in the three preceding years ; and the deaths in hospital 471, a case-mortality of 9•9 per cent.
At the close of the year there were 807 cases under treatment in the hospitals, compared with
1,369, 927, and 739, at the corresponding period in the three preceding years.

Note.—Correction has not been made in the above table for errors in diagnosis, either with respect to notifications or
admissions to hospitals. Cases of membranous croup are included.