London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1899
Forty-fourth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Parish of St. Mary, Islington
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69
[1899
DIPHTHERIA.
Diphtheria was the registered cause of 120 deaths, which
resulted in a death-rate of 0-34 per 1,000 inhabitants. This return,
although 30 more than that of the year 1898, is nevertheless 17
below the corrected average of the preceding fourteen years. So
far the mortality may be considered satistactory, but only so far,
for it is a fact that whereas deaths from Scarlet Fever have steadily
grown fewer, those from Diphtheria have advanced.
I think it was in 1855 that the Registrar-General first distinguished
between the deaths from Diphtheria and those from
Scarlet Fever, both of which up to that time had been included in
the returns for the latter disease.
In Islington the quinquennial returns have been as follows:—
| Deaths. | Deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. | Deaths that would have occurred if the population had been the same as in 1899. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1861—65 | 194 | = | 0.23 | 405 |
| 1866—70 | 137 | = | 0.14 | 244 |
| 1871—75 | 115 | = | 0.10 | 176 |
| 1876—80 | 165 | = | 0.12 | 220 |
| 1881—85 | 418 | = | 0.29 | 50I |
| 1886—90 | 311 | = | 0.20 | 351 |
| 1891—95 | 842 | = | 0.51 | 898 |
| 1896—99 (4 years) | 572 | = | 0.41 | 581 |
I have prepared the fourth column of figures so that the increased
mortality may be more clearly understood. It shows the
number of deaths that would have occurred supposing the mean
population at each period was the same as in 1899. From these
figures we learn that from 1861 to the present time the number of
deaths from Diphtheria varied considerably. In the three quinquennial
periods 1866-70,1871-75, and 1876-80, the lowest mortality
was registered. It then rose very considerably, so that there was
an increase of 123 per cent, in the 1880-5 period on the corrected