View report page

28
I now proceed to make a few observations with regard to
each of these diseases.
SMALL POX.
Only one case of small-pox, and that an imported one,
was notified in Kensington. In London generally, the disease
was at low ebb, only 63 cases having been admitted
at the Asylums Board Hospitals, and only eight deaths
having been registered, the decennial average number, corrected
for increase of population, being 593. The deaths from
small-pox during the quinquennium, 1886—90, were 47 only:
those in the previous quinquennial period, 1881—85, were
5590. The mortality from this cause during each of the past
six years was less, not merely relatively to population but
absolutely, than in any previous year since the present system
of civil registration began : the years which most nearly
approach the figures above given being, 1875 (46 deaths), 1874
(57 deaths), 1873 (113 deaths), and 1883 (136 deaths). The
mean annual mortality in the decennium 1881—90 was 014
per 1000 persons living, and lower than in any previous
decennium. It is probable that the diminution in small-pox
mortality in the Metropolis during the last six years, was
largely due to the perfected system of removal of the sick
direct from their homes to the hospital ships, situated as
these are outside the London Registration District—a system
which was initiated upon my recommendation, made to the
Asylums Board and the Local Government Board, in 1881.
MEASLES.
The deaths from measles in 1889 were 14 only, the
smallest total on record: it was not surprising, therefore,
that there should have been a greatly increased mortality
from this cause in 1890; and, in fact, the deaths registered,
140, were more numerous than in any previous year on