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32
A somewhat similar and limited outbreak of enteric fever in
the district of St. George's, Hanover Square, at about the same
date, excited a good deal of attention, having been referred to on
more than one occasion in Parliament, as a consequence of the
superior social status of the sufferers. It was made, moreover,
the subject of an investigation by one of the Medical Inspectors of
the Local Government Board, who, in his report, referred to complaints
of bad smells from the sewer ventilators and road gullies,
and to the fact of the absence of rain, so that the traps of many of
the road gullies dried up and allowed the exit of sewer gas close to
the pavements. Complaints, moreover, had been made as to the
accumulation of stable manure in mews. Nuisance from all of
these causes is by no means unknown in this Parish, but I was
unable to trace the limited outbreak of fever above-mentioned to
any of these causes.
There were 15 deaths in London from typhus in 1889,
and 43 from ill-defined forms of continued fever, the decennial
averages being 48 and 99 respectively. The deaths from
enteric fever were 538, "a figure not only far below the decennial
average, which, after correction for increase in population,
would be 854, but absolutely the lowest as yet recorded."
DIARRHCEA.
Diarrhoea was the cause of 70 deaths, against 124, 90, and
58 respectively, in the three preceding years, 64 in the Town subdistrict,
and 6 in Brompton, being 26 below the corrected decennial
average. Sixty-six of the deaths were of children under
five, including 57 under one year. Of the total number, 39 were
registered in the 8 weeks June 16th to August 10th inclusive.
The deaths from diarrhœal diseases in London generally were
2677 (580 below the corrected decennial average), of which
1989 were of infants in the first year of life, and 404 more of
children under five. There was a somewhat sharp outbreak
of the disease in the months of July and August, but it neither