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REPORT.
Gentlemen,
0
On comparing the mortality in the Whitechapel District, for
the 13 weeks ending on Saturday, October 2nd, 1858, with the corresponding 13
weeks of the year 1857, it will be seen that very little variation has taken place in the
number of deaths. There were registered during the former period, 547 ; and
during the latter, 551—the deaths of non-residents being included in each return. The
deaths in the London Hospital (which always swell the mortality in this district
above its fair average proportion) amount to 68, of which, 37 are of persons nonresident
in the district, 6 of persons whose residences are not given, and 19 of persons
whose death was occasioned by violence, the former residences of whom are not stated
in the local registrars' returns. But as we have no account of the deaths of our own
parishioners who die in the several charitable institutions in the metropolis, we may
approximate with tolerable accuracy to the correct mortality of the district, if we
include in it all the cases of death in the London Hospital, caused by injuries ; as
the defect in the record of the one, will compensate for the excess in the other.
The deaths from Epidemic diseases have been less numerous; 162 were recorded
during the quarter recently terminated, and 167 for the corresponding quarter
of last year. It is exceedingly gratifying to me to be able to state that, owing to the very
efficient manner in which vaccination is performed in this district, not a single death
from small-pox has occurred. Measles, on the other hand, has proved fatal to 22; scarlet
fever to 27; hooping cough to 22; whereas, for the corresponding quarter of last year,
the deaths from those diseases were 16, 14, and 13 respectively : but diarrhoea and
typhus fever have been less fatal; the deaths from the former having diminished from
102 to 71. and the latter from 21 to 20. Among the deaths from Zymotic diseases,
are included 4 from cholera, 4 from child-bed fever, 2 from rheumatic fever, and 3
from diptheria.
The deaths of children under 5 years of age, were 283, or nearly 52 per cent.
of the total mortality; but, if we exclude, as on previous occasions, the deaths of non-