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18
Out of the total 1,256 cases notified during the year, only 315
could be received into the Plaistow Hospital. It is obvious that, while
greatly benefiting the 315 patients admitted and their friends, the
removal of such a small proportion of cases can have had little effect
in checking the spread of the disease.
Epidemic Diarrhoea.—As is universally the case, the deaths
from Epidemic Diarrhoea were chiefly in young infants, and this must
be explained chiefly by the faulty methods of feeding. It has been
shown that the deaths from Diarrhoea in young infants under three
months of age are 15 times as great among those brought up by hand
as they are among babies nursed at the breast.
It is this disease, too, which is responsible for increasing the
general infantile mortality. Last year the total number of children
under 1 year who died from all causes numbered 1,770, equal to 201
deaths for each 1,000 births, the largest infantile death-rate I have yet
had to record.
During the year 730 persons died of Diarrhoea, giving a deathrate
of 2 5 per 1,000. 701 of these deaths were in children under
the age of 5 years. I have elsewhere explained that if the RegistrarGeneral's
system of tabulating Diarrhoea, and his estimate of the
population be accepted, the gross number of deaths from this disease
will be reduced to 465, giving an annual death-rate of 1.55 per 1,000.
On these figures, the West Ham Diarrhoea death-rate last year
was exceeded by Brighton (1.56), Portsmouth (1.76), Birmingham
(1.67), Nottingham (1.68), Liverpool (1.87), Boltom (l.64), Manchester
(1.83), Salford (1.97), Burnley (1.79), Preston (2.30), Sheffield (1.58).
Enteric Fever.—The predisposing causes of Enteric Fever
are similar in character to those of Diarrhoea, and although dependent
upon a different micro-organism, it is not surprising that an outbreak
of the one disease frequently precedes the other.