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water cisterns with sewers through the medium of " waste pipes "
so called; and the dirty neglected state into which cisterns are
allowed to fall, sometimes through forgetfulness, perhaps, but often
because they are practically inaccessible, are dangerous nuisances,
fruitful sources of disease, on which I have on various occasions
addressed warnings to every householder in Kensington I have
already alluded to the fact that many cases of typhoid fever are
imported, and should not, therefore, be reckoned in any estimate of
the sanitary condition of the parish, as judged by the prevalence
of this malady, and I have mentioned an error into which the
Registrar General is liable to fall, of overstating the deaths from
typhoid fever, through want of clearness in medical certificates of
the cause of death. It may be added that there is reason to
believe that error has crept into his invaluable " returns " from the
loose use of the term "typhoid," which is often used to express a
set of symptoms, rather than the specific disease " Enteric fever,"—
as when towards the close of a lingering illness, e.g. pneumonia,
the case assumes a typhoid character, which does not mean that
the patient had Enteric fever, though from the wording of the
certificate this might naturally be assumed to be the case. The
following tables are reprinted from my Special Report (August
23rd, 1876,) on the "Alleged Chronic prevalence of Typhoid fever
in South Kensington