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110
always be groat danger of the very expensive machinery
kept up in London failing to prevent a serious epidomic
of Small Pox.
Influenza.—The deaths referred to this cause were 31
(including the four in Table III.) The disease was
epidemic in January and February, and to a less extent in
March. It must be remembered that none of these deaths
were caused directly by Influenza, but were due to some
complication, generally a lung disease. Whenever mention
is made of a Zymotic disease in a certificate of the cause of
death, whether as the primary or secondary cause, the
death is put under that heading.
The probability that Influenza was not so prevalent as
in the two previous years is shown by the fall in the
number of deaths from respiratory disease (see Table VI.
below), which were 13 below the decennial average.
Scarlet Fever.—During the year a somewhat widespread
epidemic of Scarlet Fever was experienced, as usual
reaching a maximum in the autumn mouths. It caused
15 deaths, all but two of which occurred in the fever
hospitals. Altogether 320 cases were notified, so that the
percentage of deaths was 4.7. Of these 180 were removed
to hospital, and 140 were treated at home. The percentage
of deaths in those removed was 7.2, and in those
'
treated at home 1.4, a difference to be explained, probably,
by the more severe cases having been removed, and
especially that they were mostly from poorer and more
insanitary parts of the parish, and were able to offer less
resistance to the disease. Out of the 15 deaths 12 were of
children under five years of age. During the height of
the epidemic the accommodation at the disposal of the
Asylums Board was all used, and patients could not be
removed without in many cases a delay of upwards of a
week, a condition of affairs which I think contributed to
its further spread.