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smallest number recorded for many years. The various forms of Continued
and remittent fever caused 93 deaths, the average of the five preceding years
being only 39. The increase of 54 deaths was doubtless due to the reappearance
of true Typhus, which had been absent from St. Giles' for several years,
as absolutely as from the rest of the town.*
Typhus being a disease that affects the poor classes especially, it is of
interest to note that of the 93 fever deaths, 27 occurred in the workhouse, and
7 were among parishioners of St. Giles' and Bloomsbury who had been taken
to neighbouring hospitals. Of these 34 fever deaths in public institutions, 29
were recorded as being "typhus." The other 25 deaths that may be reckoned
as resulting from this particular form of contagious fever, took place in the
houses of the district.
The great group of Consumptive or Tubercular diseases, always reckons
in St. Giles's more victims than in an equal population of the rest of London.
The excess in 1862, was somewhat greater than usual—297 deaths from these
causes being registered instead of the estimated quota of 201. That our population
is ill fed and ill-housed beyond the average of other districts appears
the cause of this disproportionate mortality.
Diseases of the several parts and organs of the body form the third class
of causes of death. In St. Giles', as usual, a large mortality was witnessed in
1862, from Diseases of the Brain. Many of these diseases, but especially
infantile convulsions, depend upon causes that are particularly common in the
poor of St. Giles. Bad management and improper feeding of infants is the
great cause of convulsions among them. In the adult, intemperance adds much
to the prevalence of this set of diseases.
A large mortality from Heart Disease, again, is a usual feature of the
death-rate of St. Giles'. This year the excess has been marked, but not in a
degree that requires detailed comment.—It is the important class of Diseases
of the Breathing Organs that demands our most earnest attention. From
these diseases, St. Giles' lost 346 inhabitants against an estimated number of
213. This is the largest mortality from such causes that has been ever recorded
in their reports. The excess is alike, as far as can be seen, in the acute
and chronic forms of lung disease. It affected males (as is generally the case, but
still especially so this year), considerably more than females, and fell chiefly of
course, on the colder quarters of the year. In these circumstances are indicated
the chief causes why St. Giles' suffers especially from such complaints. A poor
labouring population cannot avoid exposure to all sorts of weathers, and is
often not fortified by adequate clothing and food to resist its inclemencies.
But why the district has suffered more in 1862 than usual from these lung
complaints is not so easily explained.
In the class of Developmental diseases, the 'experience of St. Giles' in
1862 is identical with that of former years. A large excess in the mortality
of its children is observed from the causes that are reckoned under this head.
The number of children prematurely born seems, not unexpectedly, to be very
high in St. Giles'. And weakly children, succumbing to small ailments in
the course of their teething, also swell high the number of deaths referred
* In certificates that are given by medical practitioners as to the cause of death, it
often happens that the nature of a fever is not properly designated. Thirty-six of the
90 deaths only were registered as occurring from Typhus. There is no doubt, however,
that many of the deaths returned under vague designations (perhaps some of those returned
as Typhoid), were real cases of Epidemic Typhus.