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108
OTHER MIASMATIC DISEASES.
Influenza.
Influenza is an intensely infectious disease. The deaths
from it in St. Giles, which were 34, 1 and 6 in the preceding
three years, were 12 in 1898.
The Registrar-General reports: "The deaths referred
to influenza during 1893, numbered 1,283, against 2,117,
491, and 699 in the three preceding years. Although the
deaths from this disease in 1898 were nearly double those
in 1897, they were below the average for the eight preceding
years."
II.—Constitutional and Tubercular Diseases.
The diseases included in this important class are,
cancer, phthisis, and the other forms of scrofulous and
tubercular diseases.
The total deaths from these several diseases in 1898
were 208, equal to a death rate of 4.1 per 1,000, against 70
zymotic or so-called preventable deaths, equal to a rate of
1.8 per 1,000.
Phthisis or consumption alone caused 124 deaths, and
was the most fatal disease of the year.
In my annual report for the year 1896 attention was.
directed to a number of important precautions suggested
for the prevention of the continued propagation of tubercular
diseases. The subject of prevention of consumption,
which is attracting considerable attention in all directions,