View report page

9
those not yet found in consequence of removals, etc., number 193
out of a total of 1,872, being 10.3 per cent., a deficiency somewhat
less than in former years. It will be seen from this Return
that in 5 cases only was exemption claimed under Sec. 2 (which
has very aptly been described as the Objectionable Conscience
Clause) of the Vaccination Act.
Sickness and Deaths due to the Principal Zymotic or
Communicable Diseases.
Small.pox.—For the fourth successive year I am in a position
to report that no death from this cause has occurred to any
parishioner of St. Luke, nor has any case of sickness from the
disease been notified. The Metropolis furnished only one death
from Small.pox against 16 for the year 1897.
Scarlet Fever was the registered cause of deaths in London
in 583 instances, being the smallest number recorded from this
disease since 1891, and being at the rate of 0.13 per 1,000 of the
population living as compared with 0.23, the average rate in the
10 years immediately preceding; of these 853 deaths, 494 or
nearly 85 per cent. occurred in public institutions.
Belonging to our own district 17 deaths were certified, 16 of
which took place in the Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals.
This is a less favourable return than for the year 1897, when the
deaths numbered 13. The returns of sickness from the same
cause were, however, less, the numbers being 197 for 1898 and
234 for 1897.
Diphtheria caused the deaths of 21 parishioners, a number
precisely the same as was recorded for the year 1897. In the
Registrar.General's Annual Summary St. Luke is classed
amongst the London Sanitary areas which during the past
year yielded the highest death.rates from diphtheria, viz., 0.59
per 1,000, and was only exceeded by St. George's, Southwark,
with 0.60; St. Saviour's, Southwark, 0.70; Battersea, 0.70;
and in Holborn with 0.73.
1772 deaths occurred in London from this cause during the
year, being equal to a death.rate of 0.39 per 1,000 against 0.54
and 0.60 for the two previous years.
Fever.Under this heading 4 deaths were registered as
belonging to the Parish, two being ascribed to Enteric or Typhoid
Fever and two to Puerperal Fever. One of the former died in
the City Road District and one in the Asylums Board Hospital.