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13
phere arising from defective sanitary arrangements. Of the deaths
from these diseases considerably more than 1/3rd was due to those of the
zymotic class, which are commonly, but erroneously, looked upon as a
child's natural heritage. Every child is supposed to go through its
allotted share of measles, scarlatina, and hooping-cough, and anxious
mothers anticipate them as disagreeable but natural necessities, a fortunate
escape from them being considered as a most notable exception to
the rule. The feeling is so strongly entertained that the propagation of
these diseases is much increased by unguarded and sometimes even
intentional exposure. Such popular and highly mischievous error cannot
be too soon eradicated and replaced by the fact that the longer a child
lives free from disease the longer will be the probable duration of its
life, and that all such diseases belong to a class upon which science has
stamped the name "Preventible." Moreover, the experience of the
medical profession furnishes the gratifying fact, that these diseases have
of late years, since the entertainment of more rational views of sanitarian
agencies, become much modified in character and diminished in fatality:
a reasonable hope may therefore be entertained that by a complete
fulfilment of the intentions of the Metropolis Local Management Act,
these pests may, at no very distant period, be exterminated.
Of the total deaths, 6 occurred amongst the gentry, 4 in the professional,
69 in the trading, and 235 in the labouring class; 47 of these
occurred from epidemic disease, or about 1 in 6 2/3rds of the whole; 40
having taken place in the labouring class and 7 in the trading class,
whilst the gentry and professional class enjoyed complete immunity.
The significance of these figures is more conveniently expressed in the
following tabulated form: —

From these figures it is seen that the labouring class suffered nearly
three times as much mortality from all causes, and nearly six times as
much from epidemic disease as the other classes collectively. I have no
means of accurately ascertaining the relative proportion of the labouring
to the other classes, but supposing that the labouring class suffered the
same relative amount of mortality from general disease as the other
classes it would then be three times as numerous, and have suffered
twice as much from epidemic diseases as the other classes combined.
But as the same causes which operated to this excess of mortality