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60
during 1906 in the Borough of Lambeth be compared with the
yearly average of the 10 years (1891-1900) for the old Parish of
Lambeth, i.e., since the Notification Clauses of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, came into force, a similar decrease will be
noticed, viz., a decrease of 42 per cent. The yearly average of
notifications for the old Parish is 715, and the number received
for the Borough for 190C is 415. Fortunately the comparison
can be extended further, and made for many years past, as the
statistics for Diphtheria have been worked out in connection with
the old Parish, as well as the new Borough, and are shewn on
the following page (62), as far as mortality is concerned. A
slight increase during 1906 will be noted.
Even allowing for the slight fallacy that may arise from comparing
statistics of the old Parish with those of the new Borough
of Lambeth, the extraordinary sudden decrease in the mortality
from Diphtheria is most remarkable, and, when taken in conjunction
with the equally extraordinary and equally sudden
decrease in the number of notifications of the same disease
received, points to a sudden decline in the prevalence of
Diphtheria throughout the Borough of Lambeth during 1906, as
well as during 1905, 1904, 1903, 1902 and 1901 ; and that, too,
although Diphtheria has been rising slowly but surely in
epidemic proportions for the previous 20 years ending 1900
(vide table on page 6i). The statistics for London, as a whole,
are no less remarkable.