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deaths from fever, and they appeared in the Returns of the RegistrarGeneral
under the head typhus; but since the year 1869 the
Registrar-General has made a distinction in his weekly returns of
births and deaths, and records the deaths from fever under the
separate headings above mentioned.
It appears from the later returns of the Registrar-General that
the deaths from typhoid or enteric fever are far more numerous than
those from typhus, or from continued fever. In the Quarter ended
October 2nd, the deaths from typhus in London were 17, and from continued
fever 39, while the deaths from typhoid fever were 184. In the
Report of Dr. Collie, the Medical Superintendent of the Fever Hospital
at Homerton, there were 9 cases of typhus admitted during the
year. Of these, 3 died. Of enteric fever there were 143 cases and 18
deaths. Although it is a matter of great importance to medical practitioners
engaged in the treatment of disease, to distinguish one kind
of fever from another, it is not of the same practical importance to
the Medical Officer of Health, whose duty it is not to treat disease
but to ascertain the causes of disease, and take such measures as,
in his judgment, will prevent their occurrence, and, when existing, to
stop their extension.
It is generally admitted that the emanations from filth, in its
various forms, are the chief causes of fever, whether such emanations
arise from visible filth as is frequently found in the surroundings of
the densely inhabited places of the poorer classes, or from the effluvia
of drains, or from the effluvia which are given off from human
beings who are crowded in houses that are not sufficiently
ventilated, or from the emanations arising from the alvine excretions
of those suffering from fever. With the view, therefore, of preventing
the occurrence of fever, it is clearly the duty of the sanitary officers to
see that all the streets—particularly the bye streets—are cleansed
daily by the scavengers—to frequently inspect the interior of all tenemented
houses, to see that the rooms and staircases are clean—that
the back yards are free from any accumulation of filth, and are properly
paved and drained—that the privies are provided with pans and traps,
and that they are always kept clean—that all the drains in the house
and yard are so trapped that effluvia cannot escape from them—that
the cistern for holding the water supply is clean, and is free from all
sources of contamination—that no room in the house is overcrowded,
that is to say, that every person living in a room has a space of at
least 300 cubic feet. In all cases of a person suffering from small-pox,
scarlet-fever, diphtheria, typhus, enteric fever, and cholera, when not
properly lodged, to cause such patients to be removed to a