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REPOET
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OP SAINT MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR SEPTEMBER, 1858.
No. XVIII.
Although the total mortality of the month of September just terminated
does not exceed the mean of the last two years, I am far from regarding the
sanitary condition of the Parish as having been satisfactory. Scarlet fever,
which in July showed a tendency to increase, has spread somewhat rapidly,
and epidemic sore throat exhibits no evidence of decline. These two diseases
have raised the mortality from zymotic diseases above the mean of the
two previous years.
The number of deaths from all causes registered in the 5 weeks was 206, of
which 72 were attributed to diseases of the zymotic and epidemic class :
119 of the whole number occurred under 20 years of age, and 53 under one
year. No less than 21 deaths, all but one under 4 years of age, are referred to
scarlet fever against 4 in July last, and against 2 and 7 in September, 1856
and 1857 respectively. The deaths from epidemic sore-throat (diphtheria)
have amounted to 9. It appears from the weekly returns of the Registrar
General that the mortality from these two diseases, taken together, has been
during the month to excess in London, predominating in the Nothern, Southern,
and Eastern districts, especially the two latter, and unfortunately still inclines
to an increase. The deaths from fever have been 8 against 8 in 1856, and 13
in 1857.
One thousand and ninety-one new cases of disease have come under the
notice of the Parochial Medical Officers. This number is unusually large,
but is swollen by an unusual proportion of chronic cases. The cases of
zymotic disease and disorders of the respiratory organs being about the same
in number as last year. The most remarkable features in the Table (II.) are
the occurrence of 9 cases of small-pox, the entry of no less than 50 new cases of
of scarlet fever, and the small proportion (for the season) of cases of
diarrhoea. With respect to small-pox, the cases which have occurrcd have
been limited to a small area in the vicinity of the Small-Pox Hospital. It
seized the largest number of persons in a dirty place called Gordon Court,
most of the cases, however, that I saw were of a mild type; I requested the district
vaccinator to vaccinate several persons whom I found unprotected in the
adjoining part of Highgate-hill.