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REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON,
>
FOR JANUARY, 1869.
No. CXLI.
The unusually high atmospheric temperature which characterised
nearly the whole of last year has been prolonged into the month of
January. One result of it has been that the mortality has been much
less than is customary in this month. The deaths registered amount
to 350. Had the death-rate of January for the last ten years prevailed,
the registered deaths would have amounted to 417. I have frequently
notified the fact that the number of deaths cannot be taken as the index
of general sickness or healthiness: so in this month the sickness recorded
in the public practice of the Parish has been excessive. The cases on
the books amount to 3201, about 400 more than in January last year.
Not a single death from small-pox has been registered, and only five
cases appear upon the sickness table. The epidemic diseases of children,
which have been unusually prevalent, are measles and hooping cough,
but both are in progress of declining. I have already, in my last Annual
Report, pointed out that, with us, measles becomes epidemic every
second year, having a period of cyclical recurrence. This fact will lead
us to anticipate no severe outbreak this year after the present epidemic
period has come to an end. The epidemic of scarlet fever is steadily
dying out, and the cases of sorethroat, so commonly met with for some
months past, though still very numerous, are also reduced in number.
Both the number of cases of respiratory diseases and the deaths from
this cause have been very great. Many cases have been observed
presenting some of the characteristic features of "influenza," and it is
to be noted that three of the deaths in the mortuary table are thus
designated.