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PUTNEY & ROEHAMPTON.
A careful examination of the available records of the
mortality and sickness that occurred in this sub-district
during the year 1864, has yielded a result by no means
unsatisfactory. Much sickness, it is true, prevailed throughout
the year, especially in the winter months, and a few
more deaths than were anticipated are to be found in the
Mortuary Table accompanying this report; but it is a
source of no small satisfaction to be able to state that
much less sickness and consequently much fewer deaths
from zymotic maladies, than for several years past, have
found a place, during the past year, in the records above
named.
It is the one great object of sanitation to arrest, and, as
far as possible, to remove, the causes that are known or
suspected to operate either in the production or propagation
of epidemic diseases. That something considerable
has been accomplished in this direction, may be assumed
from the fact that the mortality from the 7 principal maladies
of this class, has been found to have fallen from 29
in the year 1863, to 11 in 1864, which is considerably
below the average of the previous 9 years.
Amongst the most severe and fatal of zymotic diseases,
in the former of these two years, were Scarlatina, and its
allied affection Diphtheria, but in the year under review 3
deaths only appear to have taken place, as the result of
those affections. From Diarrhoea there occurred 6 deaths,
chiefly of infants, which is 4 in excess of the previous
year.
The mortality from all other zymotic diseases has very
materially diminished, and in but one year (that of 18G0)
since the Metropolis Local Management Act came into
operation has such mortality ever been lower than in 1864.
Gratifying as it is to place before the authorities and
the public, results such as the above, it is still mure so to
be able to record the fact that the deaths from zymotic