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71
10 years' average. The disease was most severe and fatal
during the cold weather at the beginning of the year.
5. Diphtheria (decennial average 14.2). The 10 deaths
from this disease in St. Giles District were 4 below the
average.
In London, diphtheria has been very prevalent during the
past three years, and in 1890 the deaths from it were considerably
in excess of the average.
The Chairman of the Metropolitan Asylums Board reports,
"There were 1,073 diphtheria patients in the several fever
hospitals of the managers during the twelve months ended
31st December, 1890, and that the mortality was 33 17
per cent."
Dr. Thorne Thorne, the Medical Inspector for the general
sanitary purposes at the Local Government Board, reports,
" It was shown by reference to statistics that during the
last decennium there had been a substantial increase of
diphtheria mortality in this country, and that a very significant
portion of this increase had taken place in the metropolis."
The Registrar-General, in his annual summary of births,
deaths and causes of death in London, l890, states "that
in 1890 the deaths from diphtheria in London numbered
1,417, giving a rate of 0.32 per 1,000 living. The rate in
the next preceding year had been 0.37, but with this one
exception the rate in 1890 was the highest yet recorded in
London. There is an increasing tendency to make use of
the metropolitan hospitals in cases of diphtheria, for while
in 1889, 17.3 per cent. of the deaths from this disease
occurred in the Metropolitan Asylums or London Fever
Hospitals, the proportion rose in 1890 to 227 per cent."
Some part of the increase under diphtheria may be due