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10
General Sickness—Amount and Intensity of.
The death-rate of any locality is usually assumed as the criterion of its
sanitary state; and calculated on an average of several years furnishes the best
information in this respect. But it docs not tell everything—it takes into
account the fatal results of disease, but it does not show the relation which has
existed between such results and the amount of sickness which has produced
them—or in other words the intensity of disease—and therefore fails to represent
the lesser fluctuations of health, of which it is most desirable the sanitarian
should have cognizance. It is not at present possible to obtain a record of
the total sickness, with its results, which has prevailed; but a portion of it—
that which has occurred amongst the poor—is accurately known, and is contained
in Table 5 of the Appendix. By assuming the proportion of deaths to
cases of sickness among the poor as the measure of the proportion of deaths
to cases of sickness which occurred in the entire parish, a sufficiently correct
estimate can be formed of the amount and intensity of the total sickness, as
well as of the extent of epidemic diseases which prevailed. Thus, the total
cases of sickness amongst the poor during the past year were 1211; the
deaths 39, or 3.2 per cent.; the number of deaths proper to the parish 219;
so that no fewer than 6800 cases of sickness, according to this calculation,
must have occurred in the entire parish. But as the mortality is greatest
amongst the poor, this computation is necessarily below the true number, in
proportion to the difference between the mortality amongst them, and that
amongst the remainder of the inhabitants; and although not accurate in this
respect, it can be wrong only on the side farthest from exaggeration, and if
taken from year to year forms a trustworthy basis for comparison.*
If the same fatality from disease had taken place during the past year as
during the 4 preceding years, the 219 deaths which occurred in the former
would represent 7406 cases of sickness; but it is seen that they resulted from
6800 only, so that the intensity of disease last year was in excess of the
average taken, as represented by the difference between these two numbers,
or about 8 per cent. And so with reference to any diseases whioh have prevailed
epidemically. The cases of epidemic disease amongst the poor were
367—the deaths 15, or a little over 4 per cent. of attacks. The deaths which
occurred in the whole parish from Scarlatina were 46 (including 3 of Diphtheria);
and as each death represents at least 25 attacks, it can be at once
seen how very extensively this disease prevailed.
Sanitary Operations.
Table 6 in the Appendix contains a summary of the sanitary operations
which had been carried out during the year, under the guidance of your able
Surveyor. It is satisfactory to see that they have all been conducted, as in
the year 1858, without the necessity for magisterial interference. In addition
to these, all the butcher's slaughter-houses were examined in the month of
September, and found to be in a satisfactory condition. The premises of Mr.
Wallis, horse-slaughterer, Dunse Hill, became the subject of a special Report
in October in consequence of a complaint that offensive effluvia arose from the
*Should the Census of 1861 contain the social position of every person registered'
this inaccuracy could be corrected.