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the old Parish of Lambeth. This yearly average is 124, so
that during 1908 there has been a decrease in the mortalityrate,
in comparison, of 64.5 per cent. So, too, if the number
of notifications of Diphtheria received during 1908 in the
Borough of Lambeth be compared, with the yearly average
of the 10 years (1891-1900) for the old Parish of Lambeth,
i.e., since the Notification Clauses of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, came into force, a similar decrease will
be noticed, viz., a decrease of 55.2 per cent.—the yearly
average of notifications for the old Parish being 715, and the
number received during 1908 for the Borough 320. Fortunately
the comparison can be extended further, and made for
many years past, as the statistics for Diphtheria have been
worked out in connection with the old Parish, as well as the
new Borough, and are shewn below, as far as mortality from
the disease is concerned.
Even allowing for the slight fallacy that may arise from
comparing statistics of the old Parish with those of the new
Borough of Lambeth, the extraordinary sudden decrease in
the mortality from Diphtheria is again most remarkable, and,
when taken in conjunction with the equally extraordinary
and equally sudden decrease in the number of notifications
of the same disease received, points to a marked decline in
the prevalence of Diphtheria throughout the Borough of
Lambeth during 1908, as well as during 1907, 1906, 1905,
1904, 1903, 1902 and 1901; and that, too, although Diphtheria
has been rising slowly but surely in epidemic proportions
for the previous 20 years ending 1900 (vide table below).
I he statistics for London, as a whole, are no less remarkable.
During 1908, no school was closed on account of
Diphtheria.
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