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REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MAM, ISLINGTON,
FOR DECEMBER, 1866.
No. CXVI.
During the five weeks of December the rate of mortality continued to
decrease. The estimated mortality of these weeks, as calculated upon
the previous 10 years, is 440; but the actual deaths that occurred fall
short of the number by 62, the number registered being 378, nearly
the same as was registered in the corresponding weeks of last year.
Two nonagenarians—females—have died, one aged 98, the other 93
years.
A hundred and six deaths, however, have been recorded in the class
of zymotic diseases, among which we find 12 deaths from small-pox, 22
from scarlet fever, 20 from hooping cough, and 12 from fever. Two of
the last-mentioned were nurses in the London Fever Hospital.
Although small-pox has been thus unusually fatal, it is to be observed
that the mortality is swollen by the illnesses which took place in
November, for the disease has not been quite so prevalent among us
as it was last month. The number of new cases that came to my
knowledge in the four weeks of November was 50, and during the last
5 weeks 45. I have before pointed out how much—in common with
other Health Officers—I have to contend against in combating this
disease, in consequence of the neglect of vaccination among the poor,
and also of re-vaccination, as well as of the lack of the necessary
appliances for destroying the virus as it attaches itself to persons'
clothing, bedding, &c. To disinfect houses, where the contents of a
room and the clothing, bedding, &c. of the occupants are reeking with
infection, you cannot fail to perceive is merely labour thrown away.