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21
CHOLERA, DYSENTERY, GLANDERS, HYDROPHOBIA, PLAGUE, RELAPSING
FEVER, TYPHUS FEVER.
Five cases of dysentery were notified during 1932, but there were no cases of the other
diseases included in the heading.
WHOOPING-COUGH.
This disease is notifiable in only three London boroughs and not in Paddington. Since
both the cause of the disease and effective means for treating it are unknown it would not
appear that notification could assist very much in checking it. Whooping-cough is very
infectious in the catarrhal stage, before the characteristic whoop develops, and this adds to
the difficulty in dealing with the disease.
In 1932, 13 persons died of whooping-cough, all being children under the age of 5 years.
The number of deaths in 1931 and 1930 were 8 and 4 respectively.
FOOD POISONING.
Section 7 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1932, requires medical
practitioners to notify cases of food poisoning or suspected food poisoning. Between the
12th July, 1932, when the Act received Royal Assent, and the end of the year, eleven cases
of illness, suspected to have been caused by food poisoning, were notified in the Borough. In
no case was action considered necessary as regards the source of the food supply. In most
of the cases there was no doubt that the illness was not "food-poisoning," but was due to
personal idiosyncracy or to the results of some dietetic indiscretion.
CANCER.
The deaths from cancer are growing in number year by year in every part of the country.
It is now one of the commonest causes of death. The number of deaths, 254, which occurred
in Paddington last year, whilst greater than the number for 1931, did not reach the figures
recorded in 1928, 1929 and 1930.
The numbers of deaths for previous years are shown in the list following: —
Numbers of Deaths in Paddington.
1932 254
1931 220
1930 278
1929 284
1928 260
1927 247
1926 239
1925 230
1924 234
1923 206
1922 191
1921 226
1920 194
1919 170
1918 164
1917 201
1916 205
1906 164