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41
It has been well observed by an authority on these
matters,* that "Small-pox might be entirely arrested, and
for ever banished from the earth, if people would only act
intelligently upon the known laws of it existence and spread."
But this intelligence, I fear, we shall look for in vain
amongst those upon whom Small-pox inflicts the greatest
suffering and the heaviest mortality; and nothing, therefore,
is more to be regretted than the absence of those really
compulsory regulations which, in most continental states,
have been long put in operation with the best and most
satisfactory results.
The same observations in reference to isolation will apply
to Scarlatina and Diphtheria, which two diseases resulted
in death during the year in 16 instances, viz., 10 from the
former, and 6 from the latter; and this, it may be remarked,
is a much higher rate of mortality than has yet been
recorded as occurring from those maladies since the Metropolis
Local Management Act came into operation.
The resulting mortality from the other principal diseases
of the zymotic group has been, I am pleased to say,
below the average of the past seven years. From Measles,
Whooping-cough, Fever, and Diarrhoea combined, the
deaths were 10 only.
It is satisfactory, also, to note that, considering the
increased number of registered deaths from zymotic diseases
during the past year, there was no proportionate increase in
the number of children under 10 years of age, who succumbed
to those diseases.
sickness and mortality amongst the union poor.
Table IV., Appendix, exhibits both the nature and amount
* Dr. Lankester, Medical Officer of Health for St. James's, Westminster, and one
of the Coroners for Middlesex.