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4
in our last report; an adult at No. 18, Chesham Place; a
boy set. 6 and a female adult at No. 24 Wilton Crescent;
a female child set. 4, at 5, Grosvenor Row.
Altogether, the decrease in the mortality this quarter
Is explained by the fewer deaths of children under 5 in
Belgravia.
Five deaths from scarlatina occurred in one house, No.
15, Woodstock Street, at the beginning of April, and at
the same time the mistress of the house died of consumption.
All the deaths from scarlet fever occurred at the
back of the house : four children, the whole offspring of a
respectable tradesman, in the first floor back; and one
child in the room above; whilst a woman was ill with the
same malady in the attic over. On carefully scrutinizing
the premises, the house, although nearly 150 years old,
was evidently large, lofty, and airy in its staircase,
although the apartments, inhabited as they were by
highly respectable persons, were close and uncleansed,
and sickly smelling. The water-closet in the middle of
the house had lately been offensive: there was a most
offensive current of sewer air from an untrapped sink in
the kitchen; and, from want of traps, the basement was
often so offensive, that the mother of the deceased children
often forbade their going there. Whether or not the
poison was introduced by contagion or by the sewer gases,
we do not pretend to say ; but in support of the latter
hypothesis, may point to the cases in the neighbourhood,
No. 17, Hanover Place, and No. 299, Oxford Street.
Amongst the other zymotic diseases, scarlatina destroyed
16, diphtheria 11, whooping-cougli 9, diarrhoea 9, measles 4,
and typhus fever 12 ; lung diseases destroyed 119, of
which bronchitis numbered 31, pneumonia 22, and consumption
55.