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10
Small Pox.
We have had but one death from small-pox in the past year, and that
occurred, as Mr. Maeson, the Resident Medical Officer of the Small Pox
Hospital, informs me, in the Small Pox Hospital on November 13th.
It was the case of a boy, aged 7 years, who was said to have been
vaccinated in infancy in the Parish of St. Pancras. This single death is
strong testimony in favor of the Amended Compulsory Vaccination Act. In
the year 1867, before that Act came into operation, 31 deaths were registered
in St. Giles from small-pox. On the 1st January, 1868, the new Act came
into force, and in that year only 6 deaths were registered; whilst during the
past year the deaths have dwindled to one. We cannot therefore doubt that
the comparative immunity which the population of this District have enjoyed
is due to the efficient working of this important measure. Much ignorant
declamation has been hurled at the Act during the past year; the best
answer to which will be a strict enforcement of its provisions throughout the
London districts.
Scarlet Fever.
The deaths from scarlet-fever in London were, last year, nearly double
the average of preceding years, having been in the ratio of 183 to 94.
I am pleased to be able to report that there were only four districts in
London that had a lower death-rate in proportion to population, from this
cause, than St. Giles. These were three West districts, viz.: Chelsea, St.
George Hanover Square, and St. Martin-in-the-Eields, with one South
district, Lewisham. St. Giles was much below its associated Central districts
as the following figures shew:—St. Giles 85 per 100,000 persons living,
Strand 184, Holborn 209, Clerkenwell 164, St. Luke 278, East London 198,
West London 240, London City 111.
So fatal an epidemic of scarlet-fever as that of last year has not for a
long time been known in London, and it is matter for congratulation that
whilst this severe disease was scourging the districts around us, our average
mortality was not exceeded.
Whooping Cough.
The deaths from whooping-cough in London were 3755 against an
average of 2450 for the previous 10 years; and in St. Giles District the
deaths from this disease were 84, our number last year having been only 42.
In London the mortality was one in 844 of the population, and in St. Giles
District one in 644; so that our mortality from this disease was nearly 30 per
cent. more than it should have been. It must be remembered that this
malady, which is enumerated among the zymotic diseases and really belongs
to the order, is much influenced by those atmospheric causes that increase
the death-rate from bronchitis. We cannot be surprised, therefore, that
during the past year, when we have had an unusual excess of deaths from
diseases of the lungs, we should also have had an increase of mortality from
whooping-cough.
Diarrhoea.
The deaths in London from diarrhoea were 3400, which was a diminution
of the number in the preceding year (4060), but an excess of the average
number of the previous 10 years (2183). In St. Giles District the deaths
from this disease numbered 64 against 69 in the previous year. The deathrate
in London was 1 in 932 of the population; in St. Giles District 1 in
834; so that in this respect also there was an excess of 10 per cent. in the
death-rate of St. Giles District.
Of these 64 deaths 44 occurred in the autumnal months,—July, August
and September. Thirty-eight of the number were one year old or under.
The infants that succumbed were, no doubt, too feeble to resist the unfavour-