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24
I now proceed to make a few observation's with regard to
each of these diseases.
SMALL-FOX.
Only one case of small-pox was notified in Kensington.
The source of infection was not traced, but the sufferer had
been at a crowded place of entertainment on the day when,
probably, she became infected. The case did well. In London
41 deaths were registered, the decennial average number,
corrected for increase of population, being 334. The deaths
from small-pox during the seven years, 1886—92, were 97
only; viz., 24, 9, 9, 0, 4, 8, and 41, in the successive years;
those in the previous septennial period, 1879—85, were 6509.
The mortality from this cause during each of the past seven
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
1882—91, was 0.08 per 1000 persons living, and lower than
in any previous decennium: the rate in 1892 was 0.01.
The disease threatened, between March and July, to
assume serious proportions, but thanks to notification, and the
consequent isolation of the sufferers, it did not then become
epidemic. Three hundred and six cases were admitted to the
Asylums Board Hospitals in the course of the year. The
notifications were 439, of which 310 were registered in the
20 weeks between February 28th and July 16th. In the next
16 weeks the total notifications were 35 only. In the four
weeks ended December 3rd, the notifications were 32, and in
the last four weeks of the civil year they were 38. These numbers
underwent a considerable increase in the remaining three
months of the official year, ended March 25th, 1893. Much
disquietude on the subject was excited, in January, by a