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31
REPORT
ON THE
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR DECEMBER, 1862.
No. LXIX.
The month of December has been a very sickly one, especially amongst the
poor, and the mortality has been excessive. Four hundred and six deaths from
all causes have been registered, exclusive of those of patients in the hospitals,
who had come to them from other parishes. I have never had before to record
so high a monthly mortality. The mean mortality of the six previous Decembers
is 300, which, augmented for increased population and for comparison with the
five weeks now in question, becomes 354; hence the registered mortality of December,
1862, exhibits an excess of 52 deaths, equivalent to an increase of about
1-7th over the six years average. To what is this due ? On consulting the
tables for former years it is found, that the deaths which have been in excess are
referable to diseases of the zymotic class, especially to small-pox, measles, and"
scarlet fever; to those of the nervous system, especially paralysis, epilepsy, and
infantile convulsions, and to disease of the heart. The two latter groups we
will pass over to concentrate our attention upon the first, which numbers 134
deaths.
1. Smallpox, exhibits upon the table the record of 9 deaths. During the
six years prior to this, put altogether, December only counts up 11 deaths, and
this inclusive of a period when it was epidemic. "We have never before had to
record so many. The weekly numbers were 2, 0, 0, 3, 4; they were as follows—
Son of a Carman, aged 2 years , 36, Upper Bemerton-street Uncaccinated.
Daughter of a Horsekceper, „ 2 years , 7, Bedford-place, Upper Holloway Unvaccinated.
Daughter of a Brickmakcr, „ 8 months , 2, Slope-cottages, Highgate-hill Unvaccinited.
Son of a Coal-porter, „ 20 months, 44, Sidney-street Uncaccinated.
Son of a Carpenter, „ 4 years, 2, Eden-grove Ont Small Cicatrix.
Policeman, „ 38 years , 19, Albert-road Two Cicatrices (Died in Hospital),
Female Servant, „ 21 years , 6, Upper Freeling-street Two Cicatrices do.
Female „ 24 years , 2, Upper BlHgfleld-st. Said to have been Vaccinated.
Male Child „ 3 years , 9, Charlton-crescent Vnvaccinated.
Of these, then, three were ascertained to have been vaccinated but imperfectly,
about one there is no decisive information, and five infants died unvaccinated,