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The summer prevalence of diarrhœa commenced about the middle
of July and was continued until the end of September. Forty-eight
deaths from diarrhoea were registered in the third quarter of the year, as
compared with 11 only in 1910. The average temperature of the third
quarter was as high as 65.8° F., which is almost a record. The average
temperature of the third quarter of 1910 was only 59.3° F. Previous
years of high summer diarrhœa mortality were 1906, when 48 deaths
were registered in the third quarter, the same number as in 1911, and
1904, when 46 deaths occurred. But in neither of these years was the
heat of the summer so excessive as in 1911, the average temperature of
the third quarter of 1906 being 63.3° F., and of 1904 61.4° F. Having
regard to the phenomenal heat last year, the summer diarrhœa mortality
is quite moderate.
As regards diarrhœa mortality Chelsea has for some years past been
able to show more favourable figures than London, taken as a whole, as
the above Table exemplifies.
Influenza.—The number of deaths attributed to influenza in 1911
was 11, as against 13 in 1910. Six deaths occurred in North Chelsea,
and 5 in South Chelsea. In London generally the disease was considerably
less prevalent in 1911 than in 1910, 496 deaths being registered
as due to this cause in 1911, as compared with 723 in 1910. Of the
496 fatal cases in London in 1911, 204 occurred in the first quarter of
the year, 100 in the second, 31 in the third, and 161 in the fourth
quarter. As usual, the month of greatest prevalence was February.
Respiratory Diseases.—The death-rate from these diseases in
Chelsea in 1911 was 2.47 per 1,000, as compared with 2.19 per 1,000 in
1910. The London death-rate from respiratory diseases, including
pneumonia, in 1911 was 2.61 per 1,000.
Tubercular Diseases.—The death-rate from phthisis and other
tubercular diseases in Chelsea in 1911 was 1.86 per 1,000, as against
1.63 per 1,000 in 1910. The death-rate in London from these diseases
in 1911 was 1.73 per 1,000. Of the 91 deaths from phthisis in Chelsea
in 1911, 45, or 49.5 per cent., occurred in the Chelsea Workhouse
Infirmary, and 22, or 24.2 per cent., occurred in other public institutions,
making a total of 73.7 per cent. of the total of 91 cases dying in public
institutions away from their own homes. The average for the 10 years
1901-10 is 44 per cent. in the Chelsea Infirmary, and 15 per cent, in
other public institutions, making a total of 59 per cent. of the total
deaths. The large increased percentage of nearly 74 per cent, of
phthisis cases dying in public institutions in 1911, as compared with the
59 per cent., the average of the previous 10 years, is probably due to
the better recognition by the public of the dangers of infection to others
attaching to consumptives in the final stages of their last illness. This
knowledge is now being brought home to everyone by the visits of the
municipal and other health visitors to the homes of notified cases of
phthisis. From the humanitarian, no less than from the public health
point of view, it is eminently desirable that the last stages of phthisis
amongst the poorer classes should be passed in public institutions, where