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within my eleven years' experience as Medical Officer, except in
the sporadic form. There have been few serious outbreaks in
single houses, and none affecting several households in one and
the same locality, a fact deserving of notice, having regard to the
contagious character justly ascribed to the malady, and the obvious
neglect of measures for preventing the spread of contagion. Indeed
a considerable proportion of the very moderate number of deaths
in the past ten years, averaging 18 annually, have occurred in
circumstances which precluded isolation, the importance of which,
moreover, seems not to have been recognised, since no case has
been reported during life with a view to removal to hospital.
Fever.—The deaths from the three varieties of specific fever
were 29, viz., 22 in the Town sub-district, and 7 in Brompton,
the decennial average corrected for increase of population being
41-3.
Typhus Fever.—Two deaths in the Town sub-district were
registered from this cause, viz., of a labourer aged 37, at Queen's
Place,—he worked in the city—and of a married woman, aged 26,
at Southam Street. There appeared good grounds for believing
that the first case was one of typhoid fever, and for doubting
the accuracy of the diagnosis in the second case. Be this as it
may the disease, intensely infectious as it is, granting it were
typhus, did not spread in either house.
Enteric Fever.—The deaths from enteric or typhoid fever were
22, viz., 16 in the Town sub-district, (including four that took
place in hospital), and 6 in Brompton. This disease was very
prevalent in the Metropolis generally in the autumn, and the deaths
in the year were above the average. Forty-six deaths were
registered in the week ended October 8th, and in the previous four
weeks the deaths had steadily increased from 10 to 48, a number
double the corrected average .The largest monthly number of cases
recorded in the parish (11) was in the four weeks ended
November 5th; four of the cases were removed to hospital;
the deaths were 5. At this period every general hospital contained
more or fewer cases, whilst nearly the whole of the Asylum
Board's Hospital at Homerton had to be closed against small-pox,