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ness at 69, Somerford Street, the case was the subject of an inquest
and clinically was one of " Cholera," accordingly a verdict to
this effect was returned by the jury on the medical evidence.
Portions of the intestine, etc., were submitted to Dr. Klein for
Bacterioscopic examination, though with a negative result. I investigated
the case with great minuteness, and visited the factory
where the girl was employed on several occasions. The " rags "
she was engaged to sort were book-binders' refuse and quite clean,
the sanitary arrangements of the factory were good, and I could
discover nothing to account for the illness beyond the fact that the
girl had partaken of a meal of fried potatoes and lemon ice a few
hours before the symptoms commenced.
PHTHISIS.
(254 deaths.)
Tubercular diseases, of which Phthisis is the chief and most common,
are of special importance to sanitarians inasmuch as they are
essentially due to a microbe called the tubercle bacillus. Persons
suffiering from phthisis are centres of infection and are responsible for
the distribution of these bacilli. Fortunately most people are able
to resist the invasion of the microbes unless they are weakened
by insanitary surroundings (particularly overcrowding and damp
dwellings), or unless they have an hereditary predisposition to the
disease.
Nearly nine and a half per cent, of the total mortality from all
causes is referable to pulmonary tuberculosis, which caused 254
deaths ; this is equal to a rate of 196 per thousand persons living ;
the corresponding Metropolitan mortality was 1.71.
RESPIRATORY DISEASES.
The deaths from chest diseases formed twenty-three per cent, of
the total mortality and numbered 636. This is equivalent to a rate
of 4 93 per thousand population of all ages.