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The sexes appear to have suffered equally, taking into consideration
the estemated male and female populations (108,005 and
154,270 respectively).
The disease was wide-spread throughout the Borough generally,
and the Inner, more crowded, districts practically suffered as much
as the Outer, less crowded, districts, viz.:—3.2 as compared
with 3.0 per 1,000 of the estimated population—the rate for
the whole Borough being 3.1. The rates for the different
Registration Sub-Districts are as follows:—Lambeth Church, 2.4;
Kennington, 3.8; Stockwell, 3.8; Brixton, 2.9 and Norwood, 2.8.
The rates for the different Wards are as follows:—Marsh, 2.2;
Bishop's, 3.5; Princes', 3.3; Vauxhall, 3.5; Stockwell, 4.0;
Brixton, 3.1; Heme Hill, 2.5 ; Tulse Hill, 3.3 and Norwood, 2.3.
The weekly corrected deaths from Influenza are set out in
tabular form. The disease appeared in three forms (a) nervous,
(b) catarrhal (bronchitis and pneumonia), and (c) gastric, but the
catarrhal form was the commonest. In several cases, the Pfeiffer
bacillus, the pneumococcus and the streptococcus were isolated, and
it is presumable that these particular germs, separately or together,
were the causes of the disease, the fatal cases being chiefly due to
the pneumonic form (one of the catarrhal forms).
Second attacks of the disease were very few (if any) and infection
appeared to be virulent during the first few hours (lasting in
a less virulent form up to 2 days) of the disease, being spread from
person to person as shewn by the many instances in which several
members of the same household were affected at the same time, as
well as many persons working together in the same business, factory
or workplace.
The disease is not compulsarily notifiable, so that no statistics
are available as to the total number of cases of Influenza that has
occurred during the year, but, judging from the number of deaths,
the number of persons affected must have been very large.