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the corresponding rate in 1901. The weather during this quarter was
for the most part cold, and the duration of bright sunshine was below
the average for each month.
The third quarter is usually characterised by an increase in the
death-rate due to infantile diarrhoea and other complaints of a septic
nature, but from the low temperatures in the second quarter, and which
were maintained to a considerable extent in this quarter, deaths from that
cause were much less than usual; thus the death-rates for both England
and Wales and London were 3.1 per 1,000 below the average; in
Westminster the rate was 13.3, the same as in 1901. The decrease in
the diarrhoea rate alone accounted for 1.52 in the country and l.l in
London; this can better be appreciated from the actual figures; usually,
in London, there are about 4,000 deaths from diarrhoeal diseases in this
quarter, but this year only 2,000 occurred. The death-rate in the City
from this class of disease was 1.ll (the London rate being 1.76).
Conduit, St. Margaret, Pall Mall, Regent, and Charing Cross Wards
had no deaths from this cause in this quarter, but the City rate was
exceeded in Victoria Ward, 149, and in St. John Ward, 2.91.
In the fourth quarter the English death-rate was 0.8 below the
decennial average, the London rate 1.2 below: the Westminster rate
was l.O below that for 1901, but in the Hamlet, Knightsbridge St.
George, St. Anne, Great Marlborough, and Covent Garden Wards the
rates were above those of 1901, apparently from chest complaints.
St. John, with 23.8 per 1,000, and the Strand, with 25.9 per 1,000, again
headed the list, although these figures were an improvement on the
previous year. The weather in October was mostly cloudy and changeable,
but November was fair and dry; frost set in early in December,
but the latter part of the month was changeable.
Causes of Death.—These are set out in detail in Table IX., and
details of the principal causes are shown for each Ward in Table X.
I have also prepared a list showing the nature of the occupation of
persons over 15 years of age and the disease from which they died,
which may prove useful eventually in ascertaining the relative healthiness
of various occupations, a summary of which will be found in
Tables XXIII. and XXIV.
Reference has already been made to Influenza. 43 deaths were
directly attributed to this disease, but, apart from these, there are always
many deaths which result from the after effects of an attack, and a
considerable proportion of deaths are attributed to Chest Diseases
which should properly be placed against Influenza.
Respiratory Diseases again form a large proportion of the deaths,
especially in the first and last quarters of the year. The rate for 1902
works out at 3.61 per thousand, as compared with 3.55 in 1901.