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41
BATTERSEA WEST.
The year 1873 has been on the whole a healthy one.
Although the deaths are slightly in excess of the previous
year, the causes are of a different nature, being chiefly
attributable to diseases of the respiratory organs, Brain and
Nerves, and Tubercle. The only diseases of a Zymotic
nature which assumed anything like an epidemic character
were Measles, Whooping Cough, and Diarrhoea. The intensity
of these diseases was not great, judging from the
number of deaths registered from those causes. In the
case of diarrhoea the number of deaths bears a very small
ratio indeed to the cases treated; for out of 388 cases
which I attended at the direction of the Board, only one
death took place, and these cases were amongst the very
poor of the district, who have not only the disease to contend
against, but, also, in many cases, insufficient food and
uncleanliness. Indeed, I am convinced that the step taken
by the Board of supplying gratuitous advice and medicine
to these people saved many lives, especially of infants, for
whose successful treatment so much depends on early
attention to cases; and who can say to what extent a
serious epidemic of Cholera may not have been prevented ?
Indeed it is admitted by all authorities, and evidenced in