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General states, "it was of comparatively short duration." The
causation of this infantile scourge, for it is nothing less, has never
been very clearly made out, and it is at the present time engaging
the attention of the medical department of the Local Government
Board, an enquiry having been placed in the capable hands of Dr.
Ballard. A curious question has arisen, viz., whether infantile
diarrhoea, as we know it, is a disease of modern origin? The
ancient "Bills of Mortality" make no reference to the disease
under any name which we can be sure was intended to describe
what we call diarrhoea, but many deaths of young children in
bygone summers were chronicled under various names of diseases
the nature of which can only be guessed at so completely has the
meaning of the names been lost.
SMALL POX.
Small-pox which, following the usual rule, had been absent from
our midst in the latter months of 1880, re-appeared at the
beginning of 1881, but at a period somewhat later than in previous
years. In my first monthly report, dated February 2nd, I had to
report the occurrence of 14 cases, viz., 4 in the district north o
Uxbridge Boad, and 10 in the remainder of the parish south of
that road: but of these 14 cases only 4 originated before January
20, two in each district. One of the cases in the south district
was imported, and gave rise to a severe local outbreak in Fenelon
Boad, Shaftesbury Boad, and Ashley Cottages. There were 369
cases of the disease recorded in the course of the year, viz., 186
in the Town registration sub-district (population 120,500), and
183 in the Brompton sub-district (population 43,000), the mortality
in the Town district being at the rate of 18'2 per cent., on total
cases, and in the Brompton district at the rate of 11*4 per cent.
The fatal cases were 34 in the Town sub-district and 21 in
Brompton: total 55, viz., 42 in hospital and 13 in the parish.
Dividing the parish into two districts approximately equal, there were
132 cases north of Uxbridge Boad of which 107 were removed to
hospital, and 237 in the district south of Uxbridge Boad, of which
193 were removed to hospital: in all there were 300 hospital and
69 home treated cases. The rate of mortality in hospital cases
was 14 per cent., and in home-treated cases nearly 19 per cent.