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The mortality returns are now further complicated by those from the
Highgate Infirmary, a portion only of which is allotted to St. Pancras.
MORTALITY AT DIFFERENT AGES.
The deaths among children under five years of age were 2,166; being 57
in excess of those in 1869.
The deaths among persons upwards of 60 years of age were 1,235; being
174 in excess of those in the preceding year.
2019 persons died between the ages of five and 60 years; this is 145 in
excess of those of 1869.
The mortality was thus greater in 1870 than in 1869 among children,
among adults, and among the aged.
SMALL POX AND VACCINATION.
In my last annual report I drew attention to an apparently sudden
extension of this disease into seven of the eight wards into which the parish
is divided.
During the year under review Small Pox was referred to in ten out of
twelve of my monthly reports to the Sanitary Committee. One of these
reports calling attention to the prevalent neglect of Vaccination was
forwarded to the Guardians of the Poor. My representations, however,
led to no practical steps being taken to avert the epidemic which was so
visibly impending, and the closing months of the year found St. Pancras
ripe for an epidemic, unprepared to meet one, and with a sufficiency of
centres of infection to speedily breed a wide-spread outbreak of the disease.
How rapidly the disease spread at the beginning of the current year, and
what steps were taken to stay its progress, must appear in the report for
the year 1871, and not in this report.
During the twelve months ending Michaelmas, 1870, the number of
children under one year of age, successfully vaccinated by the Public
Vaccinators, was 2,193, as compared with 2,497 in 1869, and 2,871 in 1868.
Such a lamentable falling off in the number of vaccinations speaks volumes
as to the laxity of the administration of the law. 179 cases of Small Pox
were reported, and 21 deaths occurred in the parish from the disease. I
am unable to supply the omission of the number of deaths in hospitals, for
the information has been refused me at the Highgate Small Pox Hospital.
I have applied to the Poor Law officers for information as to the number of
deaths among paupers from Small Pox in hospitals, but they are unable to
supply me with the requisite information; no record being kept at the
Guardians' office of the results of the disease in the cases sent into
hospital.