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Committee, on the subject of the diseases which would be
regarded as being included in the term "puerperal fever" for
the purposes of section 55 of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891. The Committee thanked the Council for their
letter, and for the information conveyed thereby.
Diarrhoea. — Twenty-six deaths occurred, compared with 40
in 1897. Twenty-three of the deaths occurred in young
children under 5 years of age.
Erysipelas.- Four deaths occurred, and 51 cases were
notified.
Phthisis.—133 deaths were registered from this disease, of
these 45 occurred in St. Margaret's and 88 in St. John's
Parish ; 18 of the deaths were reported as having occurred in
people living in common lodging-houses, chiefly in St. John's
Parish, that is about one-seventh of the deaths occurred
amongst the occupants of common lodging-houses, which in
this district, as in others in London, help to swell the deathrate
from this disease. Only three deaths are reported as
having occurred in children under 5 years of age. Apart from
the above, three cases were registered as tabes mesenterica,
aged 3 years and under, and five cases as marasmus, all under
1 year. With regard to the density of the population of Westminster
it is generally given as 67¾ persons per acre, and in
some statistics as 65; but as Mr. Smith, the Vestry Clerk,
points out (Annual Report 1895) the number of persons per
acre in what may be called the inhabitable parish is just over
120, whereas the average for the whole of London is 57. St.
John's Parish has a population of 162 2/5 per acre. This makes
a vast difference in dealing with the death-rate from phthisis
in Westminster, as compared with other districts in London,
showing Westminster as an apparently bad district.
With regard to the spread of tuberculosis by milk, Sir R.
Thome's three Harben lectures delivered during the past year
are well worthy of notice. He shows that the period of fortyfive
years ending with 1895 has been marked by a reduction
of almost 40 per cent, in the aggregate mortality of tuberculous
diseases. The reduction has been remarkably steady and
continuous throughout that period, and has affected all the
age-periods of both sexes into which the span of life is divided
in the official tables; and what is especially encouraging is
the fact that the chief part of the life-saving represented by
this fall in the death-rate bas been experienced at those age.
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