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7
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1897
Hence we see the heavy death-rate in the Borough Road Sub-District has somewhat
decreased. During the past year the mortality in the Borough Road has been
ten over that of the London Road, and 4.9 over that of the Kent Road areas. The
period over which these figures extend—six years—and the actual number of deaths
are both too small to allow of drawing any absolutely sound conclusions. Nevertheless,
it may be noticed that the mortality of the Borough Road Sub-District is 9.5 higher
than that of the thirty three large English towns. Further, the figures, so far as they
extend, show that the excessive mortality of the Borough Road Sub-District is maintained
from year to year, so that it appears to be due to inherent and not to accidental
causes.
The annual death-rate for 1897 has risen to 23.2 as against 22.9 in 1896. There
is still room for large and permanent reduction in the death-rate of St. George the
Martyr. Were it possible to eliminate the Borough Road Sub-District, or to reduce its
mortality to a level with that of the other sub-districts, the condition of St. George the
Martyr, as a whole, would compare favourably with many districts much more happily
situated both as regards density of population and general healthiness of surroundings.

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 diseases, broadly speaking, as coming under that heading. Diarrhœa
is a symptom as well as a specific 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 other words,
while all zymotic disease is preventable, not all preventable diseases are zymotic.
The corrected death rate in St. George's, Southwark, from the seven principal
zymotic diseases was 43 per 1,000 in 1897, as against 2.6 per 1,000 in the whole of
London for the same period, and 29 in the thirty-three great towns of England and
Wales.