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5
With regard to the continued fevers, several points have
to be observed. In the first place, this is only the third
Annual Eeport in which a distinction has been made between
enteric (typhoid) and the other forms of continued fever;
and it is the first in which typhus, enteric, and simple
continued fevers have been placed under separate heads.
The first of these spaces will, I hope, always be vacant;
but it is surely better for it to be clear that we have no
typhus fever among us, than for deaths from milder forms
of continued fever to be placed together under the same
heading as typhus.
If we take all forms of continued fever, I find that for
the last 2 years the numbers have been 48 and 34, while
for this year the number is 30. Now, of these, the numbers
registered as enteric fever are 32, 16, and 23; that is to
say, that a larger proportion of these deaths has been placed
under the head of enteric fever than in former years,
although the total of deaths due to these fevers is less.
It is probable that the true way of accounting for this is to
be found in the fact, that this disease is much more frequently
recognized since professional and public attention has been
so forcibly called to it, to its causes, and to the methods for
its prevention; so that deaths which would formerly have
been registered under "simple continued fever" or under
"diarrhœa" (or as "diarrhoea with fever," which I noticed
in one instance) are now more frequently referred to their
proper place under enteric or typhoid fever.
It is because I believe, as I have several times stated
to your Committee of Works, that this fever is too prevalent
in the Parish, and that the structural defects which
favour its spread are, some of them, at any rate, very
commonly found, even in houses in the best localities,
that it is my duty to draw especial attention to it