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would be effected were the Trustees to carry out their powers by prosecuting,
by way of example, one or two of the many persons who, every year in Islington,
set this important law at defiance. The district registrars could readily
furnish a long list of offenders.
You have probably noticed in the obituary of the "Times" the death of
one member after another of a family residing at 7, Shaftesbury Villas, Homsey
Road. In the middle of September, the father, mother, three children and a
servant, took lodgings in one of the besthouses in Margate, but one which was
contaminated with offensive, (probably cesspool) air from badly constructed
water closets on each floor. In three days all of these persons were attacked
with diarrhoea, and the mother and one of the children after residing a fortnight
in the house were seized with Typhoid fever—came home and died. Another
child died shortly after from diphtheria, and the father died from the effects of
grief, on November 29th. Another family of four persons, related to them, was
seized with diarrhcea after residing for two days in the same house at Margate,
and two of the children suffered from fever. Such an event shouldprove a warning
to those who take summer excursions in search of health, and should teach
them to exercise due discretion in selecting such watering places as have been
placed by the local authorities in a wholesome sanitary condition.
The table of sickness shows an increase in the number of cases of pulmonary
diseases, such as is customary at this season of the year. The total number of
cases of scarlet fever recorded has risen from 99 last month to 123. Of these,
67 were recorded on the books of the Parochial Surgeons, the weekly numbers
being 16, 12, 15 and 24. St. Mary's, Thornhill, and Upper Holloway are the
districts in which it has been prevailing to the greatest extent.
EDWARD BALLARD, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Offices,
December lstf, 1859.