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34
Nevertheless, it will probably be accepted as a fact, by the medical
profession, until stronger disproof than any Professor Axe has at
present supplied, that the cow-disease at Hendon caused the
scarlatina epidemic of December 1885, which furnished the
occasion for Mr. Power's enquiry.
Diphtheria, which was the registered cause of 22 deaths in
1885, was fatal to 30 persons last year; 22 in the Town subdistrict
and 8 in Brompton, the corrected decennial average
number being 20.7. Twenty of the deaths occurred among children
between 1 and 5 years, and only three of them at ages above 15.
Five of the deaths took place in general hospitals. In two instances
the cause of death was not registered as diphtheria, the nature
of the disease not having been recognized until a second illness
in the same family, unmistakably diphtheritic, threw light on the
nature of the previous case. In regard to London as a whole, I
had to report that in 1885 the mortality from diphtheria was in
excess: the deaths were 896. Last year the deaths from this
cause were only 846, and 87 below the corrected average. In
Kensington the mortality from diphtheria has been increasing for
some years, and in 1886 the deaths (30) were more numerous than
in any year in the preceding decennium (vide Table V., Appendix).
I cannot account for this increase, which, however, may possibly
he apparent rather than real, and due to greater accuracy in
diagnosis. This explanation seems the more probable, as the
disease has not hitherto exhibited any tendency to spread or
become epidemic. Diphtheria was the only one among the principal
diseases of the zymotic class which shewed a mortality in
excess of the corrected decennial average. One case only, so far
as I am aware, was imported—viz., from a town in the Isle of
Wight, where, in the autumn, there was a sharp outbreak. It is
probable that some of the cases registered as diphtheria were really
cases of croup, or even of scarlatina anginosa. But against such
cases must be placed certain cases of diphtheria not recognized as
such, of which we had instances. Sometimes the specific character
of an apparently simple throat affection does not become apparent