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DIARRHŒA.
Diarrhœa was the cause of 128 deaths, compared with 115, 78, and 97, in the three preceding
years; 123 in the Town sub-district and 5 in Brompton; the corrected decennial average
being 100. The diarrhœal rate of mortality was 0 72 per 1,000 of the population.
The deaths in London, as a whole, were 4,801, and 1,145 above the corrected decennial
average (3,656): 4,428 of the deaths were of children under five years of age, including 3,721 of
infants under one year. The rate of mortality was 104 per 1,000 of the population.
The advice given by the Registrar-General in 1901, as to certification of fatal cases of this
disease,* is being followed to an increasing extent by medical practitioners in the Borough, and it
may be anticipated that in course of time the object of the Royal College of Physicians and the
Registrar-General, accuracy in nomenclature, will be attained. In this connection it is interesting
to note that in London, as a whole, of the 4,801 total deaths from this cause 2,856 were certified
as Epidemic Diarrhoea, or Infective Enteritis, and 1,945 as Diarrhoea, Dysentery.
INFLUENZA.
Fifty deaths were registered from influenza, as compared with 28, 68, and 41, in the three
preceding years; 30 in the Town sub-district, and 20 in Brompton. The deaths in London, as a
whole, from this cause were 709, against 664, 1,073, and 644, in the three preceding years; and 441
below the decennial average.
OTHER "GENERAL DISEASES."
Syphilis was the cause of 10 deaths, 9 of them in the Town sub-district. Puerperal Diseases
were the causes of five deaths—between 15 and 45 years of age—four of them in the Town subdistrict.
Seven deaths, five of them in the Town sub-district, were registered as having occurred
from accidents connected with childbirth. The deaths registered as having been caused by diseases
and accidents associated with parturition (twelve in all), were equal to 3•5 per 1,000 live births,
compared with rates of 3•1, 2•9, and 2•2, per 1,000 in the three preceding years respectively.
Bearing in mind the disastrous series of cases of Puerperal Fever on which I reported in
1883, when a verdict of manslaughter was returned by a coroner's jury against a midwife, under circumstances
set out in the fourth and sixth reports for that year, I have since made it my duty to
warn nurses, and other women concerned with these painful cases, of the responsibility they incur
by attending parturient women until after a period of three or four weeks, and disinfection of their
persons, clothing, etc. This course was adopted in respect of the cases notified in 1904 with
satisfactory results, there having been no spread of the disease.
Erysipelas was the cause of three deaths, all of them in the Town sub-district. The notifications
of Erysipelas were 140; some of the cases were of traumatic origin, and others unimportant
in character, such as the framers of the Act could scarcely have intended to be notified.
Tuberculosis in its various forms was the cause of 342 deaths, as compared with 314, 310, and
285, in the three preceding years; 289 in the Town sub-district, and 53 in Brompton; 79 of them
under five years of age. Tubercular Phthisis (Pulmonary Tuberculosis) was the certified cause of
176 deaths (153 and 23 in the Town and Brompton sub-districts respectively), and "phthisis" of 50:
total 226, or 1•27 per 1,000 of the population. Tubercular Meningitis was the cause of 37 deaths;
Tubercular Peritonitis of 14; and General Tuberculosis of 41. The deaths from Tubercular Diseases
were, proportionately to population, not so numerous in Brompton as in the Town sub-district
The total deaths were in the proportion of 1.9 per 1,000 of the population.
[Under the headings—"The Prevention and Treatment of Consumption"; and "Notificartion
of Consumption," further information on the subject of Tuberculosis will be found at pp. 35 and
42.]
The deaths from Tubercular Diseases in London, as a whole, were 10,359, the decennial
average being 10,904. Of these deaths, 7,738 were due to Phthisis, the corrected decennial
average being 8,097. The death-rate from Phthisis in London, in 1904, per 1,000 persons living,
was 1•67, against 1•71, 1•64 and 1•60, in the three preceding years.
• Vide Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1902, page 38.