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REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR, JULY, 1868.
No. CXXXY.
The month just passed through is, although not the most fatal July
(considering the population) that we have had since I have held office
here, yet by far the most sickly. July 1863 and 1865 were relatively
more deadly, but they did not present any approach to the amount of
sickness of July this year. The deaths registered in the four weeks
amounted to 363, an excess of 33 over the corrected mean mortality of
the previous ten Julies. Of these, 181 were of infants under one year
of age. The new cases of sickness recorded upon my table amount to
3402. In July last year, 2766 new cases were recorded; in 1866, 2536;
in 1865, 2447 ; in 1864, 2152; in 1863, 2567.
One hundred and sixty-five of the deaths resulted from the zymotic
class of causes. The diseases which have been most unusually prevalent
have been measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and diarrhœal affections.
As to the last of these, I have recorded no less than 596 cases
of diarrhoea (which do not include all that were relieved in the several
institutions), two cases of dysentery, and one of cholera. I have
recorded nothing like this number in any former July, my highest
number of cases of diarrhoea being 397 in 1865. The deaths from
diarrhoea were 90, and a similar number was recorded in July, 1865.
All but two of these deaths were of infants under three years of age;
81 were of infants under one year.
The extraordinary heat and drought have had much to do with this
high mortality and sickness. In the second week of the month the
mean temperature was 3.9 deg. above the mean of the same week in
fifty years; in the third week of the month it was 8.5 deg. above the
mean; and in the fourth week it was 7.6 deg. above the mean (Glaisher).
On the 14th of July I registered a temperature of 90° in the shade, on
the 15th of 91°, on the 16th of 91°, on the 21st of 93°, and on the 22nd
of 93.5°, and again of 90°, on the 27th. During the whole four weeks
rain fell only on two days, namely, to the extent of O O1in. on the 4th,
and of 018 on the 11th—not a fifth of an inch altogether. The air also
has been unusually free from moisture.