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5. The deaths which occurred in each week and quarter of the year are represented
in Table II. There was one week, viz. that ending June 23, during which only 25
persons died in the Parish : the lowest mortality during any week in five years. The
low mortality of the third or summer quarter was unquestionably associated as an
effect with the comparatively low temperature which prevailed and the abundant
rainfall, which effectually cleansed the surface and flushed the drains and sewers.
6. Of the 2845 persons of whose deaths I possess the record, 1410 were males and
1435 females. 1382 or 48.5 per cent. were children under 5 years of age. The
Infant deaths in four previous years were 1066, 1108, 1238, and 1215. The infant
mortality, then, exceeds that of 1859 by 167, a number which, within 14, represents
the whole excess of mortality (181) over 1859.
CAUSES OF DEATH.
a. Zymotic Diseases.
7. Of the deaths recorded in Table I. 663 are attributed to maladies of the
zymotic class. Under the classification now adopted, it will be observed that causes
of death are now embraced under this class which were formerly excluded; nevertheless,
the number of deaths recorded has been unusually small. The number
tabulated in 1859 was 746. In the 'miasmatic' division, which pretty nearly corresponds
with the former ' zymotic class,' the deaths amount to 632; viewed in this light
the mortality thus represented amounts to 114 less than last year. It will be seen
also by Table V. that the number of cases of disease of this class attended by the
Parochial Surgeons fell short of the number of similar cases in the three previous
years. This result is mainly due to the small amount of diarrhoea and other bowel
affections, which the temperate summer brought out.
8. Small Pox. When the year 1859, to which my last Report referred, terminated,
we were in the midst of an epidemic of small-pox. Since then the epidemic has in
great measure died out, not, however, without leaving its impression on very numerous
victims, 26 of whom, viz. 10 males and 16 females, it has consigned to the grave. We
may now perhaps enter with advantage upon a brief retrospect of its course and progress.
Thanks to the facilities afforded me by the Board of Trustees, the kind
co-operation of the Parochial Medical Staff, of the Medical Officers of the Dispensaries
and especially their Resident Officers, as well as of private practitioners, I am, I
think, in a position to trace, although imperfectly, the outline of the course the
epidemic pursued in Islington. I say imperfectly, for although I have been able to
ascertain the occurrence and locality of 272 cases, yet there were very many others
which I heard of by chance, the particulars of which I was debarred from obtaining.
The places where these occurred appear in Table VII. The enumeration commences
with the beginning of 1859, and proceeds month by month till December 1860.