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43
probably due to the inclusion, among the home-treated adult
cases notified, of a considerable number of cases of nonspecific
throat disease.
The deaths from diphtheria in London were 1885, and 712
above the corrected decennial average: 524 more than in
1891, and 297 more than in 1889, a year characterized by the
then highest death-rate on record from this disease.
Part of the excess in 1892, the Registrar-General observes,
may be attributed, with much probability, to the decrease
of deaths under the heading Croup; but not all, for the
deaths under the two headings taken together, amounted
to 2,162, whereas the decennial average, after due correction
for growth of population, would have given only 1,816.
The Registrar-General points out, however, that the rates
from diphtheria in the last five years, 1888-92, were all higher
than that of any previous year, He also gives a Table showing
the number of deaths from this disease, for each of the last
six years, in each sanitary area, after due distribution of the
deaths in public institutions. The deaths in this parish were
338, including 91 in 1888, and 111 in 1889.
It is remarkable how little attention was bestowed upon
diphtheria by the "organs of public opinion," last year, at a
time when the facts with regard to scarlet fever prevalence
were being published daily, and yet the total deaths exceeded
those from scarlet fever by no fewer than 711, and were 712 in
excess of the corrected average, the deaths from scarlet fever
being 60 below the average. Diphtheria, which for many
years, was mainly a rural disease, has shown for a considerable
period an ever-increasing disposition to become an urban
disease. Fortunately, the hospitals of the Asylums Board are
available for the reception of sufferers from it, and from its
congener, membranous croup, if alleged to be of a diphtheritic
character.
The Table at page 44 sets out some particulars with
regard to Diphtheria in Kensington, in 1892,