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REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR JUNE, 1868.
No. CXXXIV.
Again we have passed through a month remarkable for heat and
drought. As measured at Greenwich, the mean temperature has been
constantly week after week above the average. In the first week it
was 3.7°, in the second 1.5°, in the third 2.3°, in the fourth 6.2°, in the
fifth 2.6° above the average of fifty years. The air has been unusually
dry—rain only fell on seven days out of the thirty-five to which this
Report relates, and the rain-fall only amounted to 1.85 in., of which
1.38 in. fell nearly all on one day in the first week. Following the law
of sickness which I have established, the general sickness, as gathered
from the books of the public institutions in the parish, has been
unusually large. The total of new cases entered being 3906. In June,
1867, it was 2977; in 1866, 2892; in 1865, 2757; in 1864, 2701;
in 1863, 3059 ; in 1862, 2558 ; and in 1861, 2715 new cases. We saw
that the sickness was high last month, and that the mortality, after
being for many months below, had come to equal the average. This
past month the rate of mortality has increased with the increased
sickness, so as to exceed the corrected mean of ten years by eleven
deaths.
Comparing the sickness table with that of the corresponding period
for ten years back, I find that the diseases which have been prevailing
amongst us more than usual in June, have been hooping cough, (151
cases), bowel affections (298 cases, the highest number yet recorded in
June), sore throats (73 cases), and acute pulmonary affections (494 cases).
Of the total number of 373 deaths, 104 arose from maladies of
the miasmatic order, 84 of which occurred in children under five years
of age. Hooping cough gave 28 and bowel affections 25 deaths; of the
latter, 3 are returned as cholera or choleraic diarrhoea—nothing unusual
in so hot a season. Nevertheless, I have thought it right to carry out
disinfection of drains and closets with carbolic acid in these instances.
EDWARD BALLARD, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Offices,
July 4th, 186S.