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18
The deaths of persons belonging to London registered during
last year were 82,037, equal to a rate of 18.3 per 1000 of the
population, against 19.4, 18.2, and 17.7 per 1000 in the three
preceding years; this rate was 1.0 per 1,000 below the mean
rate in the ten preceding years, 1888-97. The lowest death
rates last year in the various sanitary areas were 117 in
Hampstead, 13.2 in St. George Hanover Square, 13.7 in
Stoke Newington, 14.4 in Wandsworth, 14.9 in Lee, and
15.3 in Lewisham (excluding Penge); the highest rates were
23.6 in St. Saviour Southwark, 23.8 in Limehouse, 24.4 in
St. George Southwark, 24.8 in St. George-in-the-East, 24.9
in Holborn, and 25.7 in St. Luke.
During the year under notice 12,482 deaths were referred to the
principal zymotic diseases in London ; of these, 1 resulted
from small-pox, 3,069 from measles, 581 from scarlet fever,
1,756 from diphtheria, 2,157 from whooping-cough, 3 from
typhus, 554 from enteric fever, 9 from simple and ill-defined
forms of continued fever, and 4,352 from diarrhœa. These
12,482 deaths were equal to a rate of 2.77 per 1,000, against
2.62, 3.11, and 2.56 in the three preceding years; this rate
slightly exceeded the mean rate in the ten preceding years,
1888-97, which was 2.69 per 1,000. In the various sanitary
areas the zymotic death rates ranged from 0.88 in St Martinin-the-Fields,
1.29 in St. George Hanover Square, 1.40 in
Hampstead, 1.51 in St. James Westminster, 1.56 in Stoke
Newington, and 1.76 in Strand, to 3.90 in Bethnal Green,
3.95 in Shoreditch, 3.99 in St. George Southwark, 4.04 in
St. Luke, 4 13 in Woolwich, and 4-26 in Limehouse.
Compared with the averages in the ten preceding years, the
mortality from measles and from diarrhœa showed an excess,
while that from each of the other principal zymotic diseases
was below the average. The single fatal case of small-pox
registered in London during 1898 belonged to St. George
Hanover Square sanitary area. During last year only 5
cases of small-pox were admitted into the Metropolitan
Asylums Hospitals, and no case remained under treatment