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79
REPORT
ON THE
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MAM, ISLINGTON,
FOR AUGUST, 1866.
No. CXII.
The number of deaths registered daring the four weeks ending August
25th amounts to 368, a number which is in excess of the mean registered
mortality of August for ten years past (when corrected for increase of
population) to the extent of 91 deaths. The next largest number of
deaths which I have recorded in August was 288 in August, 1863, a
year which was remarkable for the great amount of sickness and
mortality which prevailed throughout the kingdom. Of the whole
number of deaths, 199 were of children under five years of age, and
there were ten of persons over eighty years of age.
It is true, as I shall presently have to show, that our mortality has
been swollen by deaths from cholera and diarrhœa, but these alone will
not account for the very great excess; in fact, in 1863, the August
mortality from diarrhœa was as large as this year, although there were
only four deaths from cholera registered. Every class of disease has
indeed contributed an excess of deaths, showing that iu addition to the
existence of the specific virus of cholera amongst our population, there
has been present also some general wide-spread influence which has
exhibited its operation in a variety of ways upon the human system.
The presence of this cause of vital depression I have recognised ever
since the month of April, (see No. CVIII.) preparing the way for the
then approaching epidemic. I may mention, among the diseases which
have carried off an unusual number of persons, besides diarrhoea and
cholera, whooping cough, mesenteric disease, the heterogeneous group
of conditions registered as atrophy and debility of infants, consumption,
hydrocephalus, pneumonia, and heart diseases.