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organism, which is believed to be a common cause of epidemic disease,
is found in quantity in horse dung, so that in streets not cleansed
properly, or not sufficiently often, it may be readily blown into food
with dust from the roads.
The great value of thorough cleansing of streets and the daily
removal of house dust is very clearly shown in St. Anne and the
Strand Wards, where the introduction of these improvements at
once produced a reduction in the death-rate from diarrhoea. In
St. Anne's Ward it had been about 27 per 1,000 births, and in Strand
Ward about 31 for the two preceding ten yearly periods—1860-1869
and 1870-1879. In 1880-1889 the practice of flushing out courts
and alleys was begun (but both street-sweeping and dust removal
were carried out by contract), the rate fell to 21-8 in St. Anne
and to 27'6 in the Strand; since 1891, when contract work was
given up and a daily collection of dust instituted, the rate fell
again to 15*8 in St. Anne and 26'8 in the Strand in the ten years
1890-1899, while in London, as a whole, there has been no such
improvement.
It is evident there exists room for improvement in four Wards,
especially St. John, Knightsbridge St. George, Great Marlborough,
and Regent.
The method in which milk is transmitted to London and
delivered from house to house allows much contamination to take
place, and the same applies to food exposed for sale on open stalls.
In the latter the cooking to which it is subjected would in most
instances prevent ill effects, but the protection of cooking milk is
seldom taken. The supply of sterilised milk to the poor, particularly
during warm weather, has been undertaken by several municipalities
with beneficial results.
Dysentery,—Six deaths are recorded under this heading. One
case contracted the complaint abroad, but the five others were
inmates of lunatic asylums. Ulcerative colitis, to which cause these
deaths Avere attributed, is believed to be identical with dysentery, and
to have been prevalent in certain asylums in which the conditions
have not been all they ought.
Measles.—This complaint is popularly regarded as a simple and
harmless one, yet during 1901 no less than 1,952 deaths occurred
from it in London, nearly four times as many as from scarlet fever,
600 more than from diphtheria, and probably this does not represent
the total, as deaths due to measles are not infrequently assigned to
bronchitis. The deaths in London were equal to 0'43 per 1,000
persons, and was most fatal in Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Stepney,
Southwark, Bermondsey, and Battersea. in Westminster 59 children