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59
Plague.—72 intimations were received from Port Sanitary
Authorities that persons from ships On which cases of plague had
occurred or which came from infected ports, were on their way to
this City, but no cases resulted.
Other Communicable Diseases.
Besides the diseases which are legally notified, there are others
which add materially to the death-rate, or which interfere seriously
with educational work. Measles and whooping-cough belong to
both divisions, diarrhoea to the former, chickenpox and mumps to
the latter.
Diarrhceal Diseases.—97 deaths were ascribed to diarrhoea or
zymotic enteritis, in addition to which 13 deaths were ascribed to
simple enteritis, five to colitis, and one to dysentery. The diarrhoea
rate per 1,000 inhabitants was 0-52, compared with 0'86 for London.
It varied from nil in Pall Mall and Charing Cross Wards to 1*15 in
iSt. John (see Table XVIII).
As the bulk of the deaths in this disease are among young
children, a better guide to the incidence of the disease is to be
obtained with comparing the deaths under, one year with the births.
Thus per 1,000 births there were deaths from diarrhoea in the
following ratio :—

The City of Westminster .. .. 21-8 (23*3).
The figures in brackets represent deaths from diarrhoea with
those from simple enteritis.
Epidemic diarrhoea affects persons at all ages, but it produces
fatal effects in the very young, the old, and in persons in feeble
health. It is conveyed into the system chiefly through food which
has become infected, and milk is a suitable medium in which it can
grow. The presence of this disease is indicative of want of cleanliness
in or about houses, such as badly cleansed streets, courts, and
yards, accumulations of refuse, failure from carelessness or want of
accommodation to keep food free from contamination, &c. A specific