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34
FEVER.
No death was registered from Typhus Fever or from Simple
Continued Fever.* The deaths from Enteric Fever were 15,
against 11, 21, and 19, respectively, in the three preceding years;
being six below the corrected decennial average. Thirteen of the
deaths were registered in the Town sub-district, and two in
Brompton. Three took place in hospitals, to which 25 patients
were removed. The recorded cases were 77 (50 in 1889): 52 in
North Kensington, and 25 in South Kensington, the Uxbridge
Road being the dividing line. There were 11 deaths from
typhus in London, 33 from simple and ill-defined fever, the
decennial averages being 43 and 87. The deaths from enteric
fever were 618, or 218 below the corrected decennial average.
DIARRHŒA.
This disease was the cause of 78 deaths, against 90, 58, and
70, respectively, in the three preceding years; 67 in the Town
sub-district, and 11 in Brompton; being 18 below the corrected
decennial average. Sixty-five of the deaths were of children
under five, including 53 under one year. Of the total number,
52 were registered in 12 weeks—June 15th to September 6th
inclusive. The deaths from diarrhœal diseases in London
generally were 2753 (652 below the corrected decennial average),
of which 1952 were of infants in the first year of life, and 488 of
children between one and five. The question why diarrhoea is so
prevalent and fatal, especially to infants, in hot summers, has
been long under consideration by the medical department of the
Local Government Board. A "provisional or working hypothesis"
has been formulated, which assumes the existence of a form of
germ life in the earth—especially where this is sewage-tainted or
otherwise polluted—which germ, developing into activity when a
certain temperature is attained, and rising into the air, finds
admission with food into the system, and multiplying there,
generates a poison which is the immediate cause of death.
* The notifications were, simple continued fever 9, enteric fever 84, typhus
fever none.