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Section III.— On the Causes of Death in St. Giles's District in 1866.
Instructive statistics have been obtained for 1866 as for other years by
a comparison of the rate of mortality from various causes in London as a
whole with that existing at the same time in St. Giles's. The influence of
the particular season being the same, this mode of comparison gives several
valid results of very practical importance.
The quota of deaths from all causes which the population of St. Giles'
should furnish to the general mortality of London, if the mean death-rate of
the metropolis prevailed in the district, is one 56.25th part of the mortality
in the metropolis, that being the fraction which St. Giles' population is of the
entire population of London. In the opposite table, this fraction of the mortality
of London is shown for each group of diseases and for some of the more
important particular diseases : and in parallel columns are placed the figures
representing the actual mortality from those diseases in the district.
The quota of deaths from all causes was 1425 : the actual number was
1570. For every hundred deaths therefore, that would have occurred if the
mean death-rate of London had prevailed iu St. Giles', the District did actually
suffer the loss of 110. Diseases unnamed in the registers or of a kind that
cannot be classified were of too frequent occurrcnce in St. Giles's, but this
consideration is not of magnitude enough to affect the deductions concerning
named diseases.
The zymotic class of diseases has, as usual, great interest for us. It has
been shown that small-pox, measles, continued fevers, and diarrhcea, were
more prevalent than usual in London. In the excess of small-pox and fevers
St. Giles' participated to about the same extent as the average of the town;
in the case of measles and diarrhcea the excess was disproportionably large in
our own district. The death-rate of St. Giles' from scarlatina was about the
mean of London; that from whooping-cough notably below the mean.
Referring to the table for the figures relating to each of these diseases,
particular mention is only needed of two. Of the 22 persons to whom small
pox was fatal, 14 were not protected by vaccination, 4 appeared to have been
vaccinated, and of the 4 others the vaccination is not recorded. If small-pox
among unvaccinated was fatal 14 times to 4 times that it was fatal in vaccinated,
then—since at least 90 per cent, of our population is vaccinated—it
follows that unvaccinated persons in St. Giles' died from small-pox last year
at least thirty times more numerously than the vaccinated. And there is a
strong presumption given by the Registrar's notes that in certain of the eases
of fatal small-pox after vaccination the operation had been imperfectly done
in infancy, and its protective power had not been again sought (as in such
cases especially it should be) about the age of puberty.—The other disorder of
which further mention is required is "fever." Of the 48 deaths grouped
together as having occurred from such cause, "typhus" is credited with the
fatal event in 24 instances, while the other 24 are set down either to
"typhoid" or simply to "fever" or "continued fever." In 1865, 75 deaths
were ascribed to typhus, 18 to typhoid, and 10 to undescribed forms of fever.
In 1864, the number of deaths from typhus was 65; from fevers otherwise
registered, 20. The typhus epidemic in St. Giles' which increased rapidly
up to last year has now decreased with even greater rapidity, a fact which it
is impossible not to connect with the adoption in 1865 of the plan of removing
all fever patients at once, when practicable, to hospital, and so ridding the
district of many centres of contagion.