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22
age, of whom 31 were less than one year old. Whooping Cough
by itself is not a very frequent cause of death, the disease usually
proving fatal through complications which too often arise from
want of proper care in the management of the sick. This disease
is too lightly regarded by parents in the humbler ranks of life.
Children must have it, they think, and they take little pains either
to prevent the attack or to guide the little sufferers through what is
one of the most painful and distressing of infantile complaints.
FEVER.
The deaths from the three diseases grouped under this head
were 33, ten less than the corrected average, but ten more than
in 1879.
Typhus.—The deaths attributed to this intensely infectious
disease were 4, of which 3 were registered in the Brompton subdistrict.
The cases were carefully investigated, with the result of
convincing me that the diagnosis was in error. The first case was
that of an old lady at Wharfdale Street, West Brompton, who was
removed into this parish not long before her death, being very ill at
the time. Her usual medical adviser, who had been in attendance
till within a few days of her death, assured me that the complaint
was not typhus, but simply inflammation of the lungs; her family
were not told she had typhus, no precautions were taken to prevent
the spread of the disease, if it were typhus; and it did not spread.
The second, third, and fourth cases were of young children, at
Princes Road, Notting Hill; at South Row, Earl's Court; and at
Stanhope Mews East, respectively. No second case occurred in
either of these localities.
Enteric Fever.—The deaths from this disease were 24, as compared
with 14 in 1879; 17 of them were registered in the Town
sub-district, and 7 in Brompton : the quarterly numbers being 4,
6, 4, and 10. Several of the cases were imported, notably one of a
female student at Observatory Avenue, another of a military student
at Holland Park Terrace, and a third of a young lady at Cromwell
Road, whose illness originated on the Continent. One death of a
child aged 6 ascribed to gastric fever; bronchitis, was, by the