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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1859. 13
to my not having the statistics of the quarter ending March, 1859. You will observe
the very great increase of deaths from small-pox during the last year.
TABLE No. 2.
1857—58
1858—59
1859—60
ZYMOTIC DISEASES
First
Quarter
Second
Quarter
Third
Quarter
Fourth
Quarter
Total
First
Quarter
Second
Quarter
Third
Quarter
Fourth
Quarter
Total
First
Quarter
Second
Quarter
Third
Quarter
Fourth
Quarter
Total
Small Pox
..
••
1
••
l
1
2
1
9
25
32
22
88
5
2
••
4
11
25
31
12
1
3
3
9
16
Scarlatina and Diptheria.
4
3
10
10
27
9
31
45
15
18
23
12
68
Hooping Cough
28
12
10
20
70
24
14
13
8
3
5
19
35
9
56
12
2
79
7
49
11
7
58
4
69
7
15
9
7
38
2
12
9
7
12
3
5
27
The deaths from phthisis have been 210, being 15 per cent. of the total number of
deaths. Now this is a serious mortality, when we consider that phthisis is a disease which
we have also the power of preventing, if not entirely, yet to a very considerable degree. It
is but the phasis of one form of scrofula, whicli, being a disease of nutrition and developement,
can easily be generated. And, unfortunately, the evil does not end with the individual
in whom it originated : from him this morbid disposition is propagated to his offspring, and
thence onwards, through future generations, producing suffering and untimely death. In
hundreds of our unventilated and over-crowded workshops, in hundreds of our foul localities
and filthy habitations, is this disease being engendered, not taking into account those trades
which, from their nature, necessarily produce consumption. This disease is rife amongst
tailors and milliners, solely from the unhealthy state of their workrooms. There is nothing
pernicious in the businesses themselves, and yet from this cause there is an amount of
consumption amongst them second only to that amongst Sheffield grinders and others
engaged in similar injurious trades.
There is also another serious evil which follows from these artificial and unnatural
circumstances, and which exerts a mischievous effect upon the moral powers. Men whose
nervous systems become depressed, and the tone of their system generally lowered, become
the subjects of a continued craving" for stimulants. In order to satisfy this unceasing and
imperious want, they have recourse to the ever-ready and speedily-reviving dram, quite
heedless of future consequences, and thus many of them become confirmed gin-drinkers.
And it argues ill for the impartiality of our judgments if we hastily and unthinkingly
condemn such. Is it not rather their misfortune that they thus fall before a state of things
from which they could not escape, and over which they could exercise no control ?
The following table shows the number of deaths that have taken place during the
quarters of the last three years from phthisis, bronchitis, and inflammation of the lungs. It