View report page

32
25. Deaths in Public Institutions. Table I. shows the
actual number of deaths occurring in public institutions in
the Borough, viz., 298, compared with 289, 276, 272, 326,
and 292, in the five preceding years. These deaths nearly
all occurred in the Poor Law Infirmary; they were 18.9 per
cent. of total deaths, compared with 19.4, 18.8, and 20.6, in
1910-11-12. Table IA. shows the institutions, inside and
outside the Borough, receiving sick and infirm persons belonging
to the Borough, and Table IV. shows the number
of deaths from each disease occurring in public institutions.
Over one-third of the total deaths occurred in the Infirmary
or hospitals.
25a. Notification and Admission to Hospital of Infectious
Diseases. Information as to the occurrence of disease is
obtained partly by death returns and partly by notifications
of illness. The former are received from the Registrars of
Births and Deaths; the latter are made principally by
medical practitioners, but also by school teachers, and very
occasionally by other persons.
The following diseases were made compulsorily notifiable
by the Public Health (London) Act:—Small-pox, cholera,
diphtheria, erysipelas, scarlet fever, typhus, typhoid or
enteric fever, relapsing fever, continued fever, and puerperal
fever. Exposure of persons and articles infected with these
diseases is penal, and disinfection can be enforced.
By order of the London County Council, approved by the
Local Government Board, made under Section 56 of Public
Health (London) Act, the following diseases have since been
added to the list:—Polio-myelitjLs, cerebro-spinal fever,
ophthalmia neonatorum, glanders, anthrax, and hydrophobia.