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5
REPORT
ON THE
SANITARY CONDITION OF SAINT MARY, ISLINGTON,
DURING AUGUST, 1857.
No. V.
The accompanying tables of mortality and sickness will bear, on the whole,
favourable comparison with those in my July report.
The total mortality has fallen from 248 in five weeks, to 176 in four weeks,
and the mortality from zymotic diseases from 94 to 54. The deaths from
diarrhoea have fallen from 53 to 30, and only 1 death has been registered
from infantile cholera. Measles and hooping cough have also been less fatal.
There have been 10 deaths from fever, 8 in the West and 2 in the East subdistrict.
The deaths from "Tabes Mesenterica" (a scrofulous affection of the
mesenteric glands in the abdomen), registered this month were very numerous,
but the excess is probably more apparent than real. The table shows that it
is confined to the East sub-district, and the greater number of the deaths were
returned by one of the parochial surgeons newly appointed, Mr. Greenwood.
He assures me that these cases, in which gradual emaciation was the leading
condition, were never returned as mesenteric disease, except where his mind
was clear as to the cause of this symptom; and he considers that, in all probability,
cases of this class were formerly returned as "Atrophy." The
greater number of the deaths took place in the closest and most crowded
courts and lanes of the South-Eastern division of the parish.
Comparing the mortality with that of August last year, the result is not discouraging.
The total mortality, notwithstanding increased population, has
been 10 less (176 against 186), the mortality from zymotic diseases generally
19 less (54 against 73), and that from diarrhoea and cholera 18 less (31
against 49). The deaths from fever in August last year were 9.
Making allowance for the difference between five and four weeks, the
general sickness among the poor, as indicated by the number of new cases
attended by the parochial surgeons, has remained much the same as during
July. Diarrhoea, however, has been more extensively prevalent, 324 new