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39
pauper population of the parish, will be readily ascertained
by a reference to the appended Table, No. Y. The number
of cases of sickness, accident, &c., amongst this class treated
during 1864, was 422, which is less by about 40 than
during the preceding year. Of this number, 20 proved
fatal, thus presenting about the same small per-centage as
in the year 1863.
It is with the same satisfaction expressed in previous
reports, that I record the fact of the number of deaths
registered as the result of zymotic diseases, only about
one half, or 7 of the 13, occurred amongst the class to
which I have just been referring.
As to the mortality in public and other institutions
during the past year, I am enabled to present a by no
means unsatisfactory report. About the same number of
deaths (11) took place in the Royal Hospital for Incurables
as in the previous year, while in the Convent at RoeIt
ampton, but one death is recorded—that of a Sister of the
Religious Order there located. The difference in the number
of deaths in these two institutions is great, but still
not greater than might be reasonably expected, seeing that
the one benevolently opens its doors to the hopelessly incurable,
whilst the other affords an asylum to those who,
from their isolation and strict hygienic discipline, are much
less exposed to severe sickness than perhaps any other
class in the kingdom.*
is most required, and since private practitioners, as a rule, will not give
the required certificates to insure the due registration of its success, aa
enjoined by the Act, the Legislature intended it should be aa free for all
persons to apply to that Public Officer for the gratuitous insertion of the
vaccine lymph as it is for all to claim the gratuitous services of the Public
Registrar of Births and Deaths. Both these Officers are paid out of the
same public funds for that part of their respective duties defined by Acts
of Parliament, and it is difficult to understand why a resort to the one
should pauperize an applicant, and a resort to the other not do so.
* The majority of the Patients formerly inmates of the Royal Hospital
in Putney, have within the past year been removed to more suitable
premises in the adjoining parish of Wandsworth. It is intended,
ultimately, to remove the Institution entirely from this parish. When
this is accomplished, it will materially decrease the rate of mortality of
this Sub-District, and, of course, produce a corresponding increase in
that of Wandsworth.