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48
and after confinement. It is the duty therefore of every
person whether Midwife or Surgeon to cease attending
lying-in women, whenever he or she shall be unfortunate
enough to have cases of this description, as no known
precautionary measures have ever been successful in
removing the power of infection when once contracted.
Medical men indeed, have relinquished practice for many
weeks, destroyed all their clothes, and even shaved
the hair from their heads and whiskers, and yet on
returning to their duties, the first case attended has
proved fatal.
Mortality.—The total number of deaths registered
during the past year was 68G, 3G0 males and 326 females,
the males exceeding the females by 36. 136 of these
deaths took place in Public Institutions, viz., 133 in the
Infirmary of the Workhouse, 2 at the Freemasons' School,
and 1 in the Westminster Union School. Deducting,
then, the 133 Infirmary deaths, which, as the inmates are
derived from the whole Union, it is only fair to do,
it will leave 553 as the correct number proper to the
out-door population of this division of the parish.* Of
the 133 Infirmary deaths, 46 belonged to Battersea, and
as the cases were derived from both divisions of the
Parish, they will be taken into account in the summary
table in the Appendix.
Death-rate.—The death-rate for this, the Western
division of the Parish, for the past year is 17*2 per 1000
persons living, or 1 in every 58, in an estimated population
at the middle of the year 1874 of 32,135 souls, calculated
on the method pursued by the Registrar-General. Looking
* Out-door with reference to Infirmary, the Infirmary population
being deducted.