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19
quarterly numbers were 10, 8, 37, and 17 respectively, and the proportion
of deaths under five years was smaller than usual.
Simple Cholera.—Three deaths were registered from this cause,
all in the Town sub-district.
SMALL-POX.
Small-pox, which had been prevalent during the first half of 1878
—there were 169 cases reported to the end of June—was in almost
complete abeyance during the latter part of the year, only 10 cases
having been recorded in the six months. At the end of December,
however, the disease re-appeared in the parish, and during the year
1879, I had to report the occurrence of cases in nine of my monthly
reports, which cover, severally, a period of four weeks.
Of the 139 cases recorded, 21 occurred in the district north of Uxbridge
Road, and 115 in the district south of that thoroughfare; 112 of
the sufferers were over, and 27 under, 15 years of age*; 110 were
removed to hospitals ; while 29 were treated at home, this latter
number of course being irrespective of concealed cases. In several
instances the occurrence of a death led to the disclosure of the disease.
Between September, 1879, and January, 1880, no case of small-pox was
reported; but a new outbreak commenced at the latter date, the progress
of which to date is sufficiently set out in the annexed table.
The fluctuations of the epidemic and the relative prevalence of the
disease in the parts of the parish north and south of Uxbridge Road,
respectively,—between November, 1876, and the end of June, 1880,
* In previous reports I have adverted to the difference in the relative proportions
of adults and children attacked in the north and south sections of the parish
respectively. The same difference was apparent last year. Thus of 98 cases in
the south, 18 (= 1 in 5J) were under 15 years of age, while in the north 9 out of
17 (say 1 in 2) were under 15. In the first half of 1880, 4 out of 5 in the north
were children, and only 5 out of 26 (= 1 in 5) in the south. As children are more
numerous than adults, and as they are usually at home, it might have been expected
that they would furnish a larger proportion of cases upon the hospital
theory of infection referred to below. It may be added that male adults are
admitted into hospital in larger numbers than females and yet females, being
more at home than males, should suffer most if the poison of the disease were
spread over the district from the hospital as alleged.