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53
They also sanctioned the appointment, for a period of four
weeks, of six Assistant Sanitary Inspectors, who inspected
1,520 houses and served 1,368 "written intimations" of nuisances,
so as to "secure the existence of the nuisance being
immediately brought to the notice of any person who may be
required to abate it," in conformity with Section 3 of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891. In my report to the
Committee at the end of the four weeks, I represented the desirability
of continuing this special work for a few additional
weeks. The Committee, however, thought it unnecessary, and
decided accordingly. It only remains to add that it is probable,
judging from past experience, that there will be a recrudescence
of Cholera this year, and that it behoves Sanitary
Authorities, at home and abroad, to be prepared for this
contingency.
INFLUENZA.
For the third successive year Influenza was prevalent in the
Metropolis, as in many other parts of the kingdom. The deaths
directly ascribed to this cause in London were 2,264, compared
with 2,336 in 1891, and 650 in 1890. The total therefore, in
the three years, was 5,252: in the preceding ten years, 1880-89,
the deaths had been only 63. But, as the Registrar-General
observes, "these 5,252 deaths by no means represent the whole
mortality caused by these successive outbreaks. A large
number of deaths really due to influenza are certified under
other names, and especially under bronchitis and pneumonia,
and the deaths under these two headings in the three years
numbered 56,070, whereas according to the preceding decennial
average they should have been only 47,120. What has been
spoken of as three successive outbreaks," he adds, "would be
more accurately described as a single outbreak with three
periods of exacerbation; for there was scarcely a week, and no
succession of two weeks, in the three years without some
deaths from this disease. In 1890 the period of maximum