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1863-4.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
Medical Officer of Health.
SECTION I.—On the Mortality of the Metropolis in 1863.
The year 1863 has been conspicuous among recent years for a high
mortality, resulting from the prevalence of epidemics to an unusual degree.
Small-pox, scarlatina, and typhus, have especially left their marks on its
death-rolls.
In London there were 72,346 deaths from all causes in the year 1863, a
larger mortality (relatively to the increasing population) than has been
observed since 1854. Allowing however for the circumstance of the registration
year comprising one week more than is customary, the cxcess is considerably
reduced, but the death-rate remains about one in the thousand more than
that of 1862. In 1863 (corrected to a solar year) 24.52 persons died out of
every thousand residents in London.
The year 1863 witnessed the severest epidemic of small-pox that has
been recorded since 1844. This disease is constantly present in the town,
but every three or four years it assumes an epidemic form, finding its victims
mainly among those whom a year or two of security has lulled into a neglect
of vaccination. Two thousand deaths from small-pox were registered in
London in 1863. It is not too much to say that every one of these should
have been prevented. From scarlatina the number, almost unprecedented, of
5075 deaths were recorded, and there were also 724 deaths from diphtheritis.
From typhus and other forms of continued fever, 2892 persons died. These
diseases were considerably more fatal in the preceding year, but the epidemic
of true typhus that began in 1861 continued through the whole of 1863; in
the summer months experiencing a slight decrease, but again becoming more
fatal in the fourth quarter of the year. Besides these important members of
the zymotic class, croup and puerperal fever require mention as having contributed
an undue share of deaths to the register of 1863. But measles,
whooping cough and diarrhoea, three disorders that always contribute many
deaths to this class were not above the average in their mortality.
The year 1863 had a somewhat high average temperature, the winter
months being warmer, although four of the summer months were cooler than
in the average of years. Nevertheless, the two most important of the diseases
that are especially affected by temperature, bronchitis and consumption in the
lungs, exhibited their full contingent of deaths. Inflammation of the lungs
was not so fatal as usual.