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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1895.
7
Although there is certainly some reason for alarm at the death-rate of the
Borough Road Sub-district, yet one cannot help feeling a good deal of satisfaction
with the figures for the whole parish during the past year. The annual death-rate
for 1895 has dropped to 23.7 as against 239 in 1894. This fall of 0.2 brings the
result within 4 of that of the whole of London. Moreover, if we take the recorded
rate for the past 50 years we find that there has been a decrease from 30 in the decade
1841-50 to 2.37 in 1895. It is highly gratifying to be able to report that the yearly
decrease in the death-rate has been maintained. There need, therefore, be no change
in comment on this point made in last year's report. The passage in question dwelt
on the encouraging fact that the death-rate of this parish touched the lowest point
recorded for the last half century ; in fact, since official returns of this kind have
been systematically recorded. These results certainly appear. on the face of them, to
furnish proof of the value of sanitary progress to the community. At the same time
it should be borne in mind that there is still room for large and permanent reduction
in the death-rate of St. George the Martyr.

Zymotic or Preventable Death Rate.
It may be noted that the term "zymotic'' applies to the following seven
diseases-:—Small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, "fever"
(i.e., typhus, relapsing, puerperal, simple continued and typhoid), and diarrhoea.
I have called the above zymotic diseases " preventable," because I regard all
communicable disease, broadly speaking, as coming under that heading. Diarrhoea
is a symptom rather than a disease, and, although not usually communicated from
one person to another, it may be regarded as the almost invariable result of bad
environment. At the same time, it must be clearly understood that a vast amount
of preventable disease, such as that due to alcoholism, is not zymotic in the ordinary
sense of the term—that is to say, disease communicable from the sick to the
healthy.
The corrected death-rate in St. George's, Southwark, from the seven principal
zymotic diseases was 3.8 per 1,000 in 1895, as against 2.6 per 1,000 in the whole of
London for the same period, and 2.8 in the thirty-three great towns of England and
Wales.
As in the calculation of the general death-rate, so with the zymotic death-rate,
the deaths of non-parishioners occurring within the district have been excluded ;
whilst on the other hand the deaths of parishioners in public institutions outside the
parish have been included. Unless a proper distribution of these deaths be made,