View report page

6
a cause of calamities such as I have just described, but in many
cases the character of the disease is known to those who might
have acted as advisers to the inhabitants of the houses, or who
might have reported the existence of the first case to the
Sanitary Department. Gases such as these point most strongly
to the necessity of a system of registration of cases of infectious
disease, at any rate in houses let out in tenements.
The utter carelessness of people with regard to this dangerous
disease was well exemplified by the conduct of a man
who removed his child while suffering from Scarlet Fever in
University College Hospital from that institution by the
Metropolitan Railway to his home. The course taken by the
Vestry in prosecuting the offender led to a punishment being
inflicted which will be useful in deterring others from committing
similar offences.
DIPHTHERIA.
44 cases of Diphtheria became known to the Sanitary Department
in 187!); 25 persons died from this disease in St.
Pancras during that year. In this disease also the Registrar
General's returns show a larger number of deaths than the
tables which accompany this report. This difference has
perhaps resulted from the fact that some practitioners have
returned a cause of death two diseases—Diphtheria and
Scarlet Fever—in the same person. I have not regarded the
diphtheritic sore throat, which often accompanies Scarlet
Fever, as an indication of the existence of the two diseases,
but have classified these cases as Scarlet Fever in the tables
which accompany this Report.
25 deaths is in the proportion of 4.8 of every 1000 deaths
from all causes. The Registrar-General's returns, however,
show a slightly smaller proportion of Diphtheria to deaths
from all causes in St, Pancras than iu London as a whole.
One localized outbreak of this disease occurred in June, 1879
in which six persons were attacked. These cases were apparently
due to infection from one person suffering from this
disease. The removal of the sick to hospital prevented any
lurther extension of the outbreak.
WHOOPING COUGH.
This disease caused directly 154 deaths in St. Pancras
during 1879, but if we were to include cases which died at a
long period afterwards from Bronchitis, doubtless due in the
first instance to Whooping Cough, the number amounts
to 175.