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Of these twelve persons, then, who died from small-pox,
No. 3 was an infant who was too young to have been
vaccinated: Nos. 4 and 8 were not vaccinated, and without
doubt No. 1 also: No. 5 may be taken as doubtful, but
probably an unvaccinated case: No. 11 had such a variety
of complaints that he might be left out of consideration,
and, indeed, has not been included under the head of smallpox
in the Registrar-General's Returns; no statement about
vaccination was made in the certificate, and we may fairly
assume that he had not been re-vaccinated.
The other 7, including even No. 12, ought to have been
re-vaccinated; it is true that No. 6, a woman fifty years of
age, was re-vaccinated on the appearance of small-pox in
the house, but she had already taken the poison, and it was
too late: she ought to have been re-vaccinated many years
before.
So that we can trace every one of these twelve cases
to want of vaccination or of re-vaccination.
Besides these, there was a death registered from purpura
hemorrhagica, which I had reason to believe was really a
death from malignant small-pox; I therefore had complete
disinfection carried out, and all proper precautions taken.
The epidemic of small-pox in London, which began in
1876, and caused 702 deaths in the last six months of that
year, caused no less than 2,544 deaths in 1877; "it was
most fatal in the first three months of the year, and as many
as 116 deaths occurred in one week."
Measles was slightly epidemic in the Parish, and caused
30 deaths, the average number being about 24.
On the other hand, scarlet fever and whooping cough
caused only 19 deaths each, their average being 45 each.
The 9 deaths from dipththeria almost exactly equalled the
average number, for that disease has not been prevalent in
this Parish as it has in some parts of London; and,