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12
This table shows the great variations in the number of deaths
from small pox during the last few years, as they reached 400
in 1871, 179 in 1877, and 225 in 1881. The Registrar
General returns the numbers for 1877 at 183 and for
1881 at 236. The difference may arise from deaths in the
Highgate Hospital not reported to me by the friends of
the patients. The average annual number of deaths from
small pox in 1871-80 was 96, which gives 6.6 deaths per
10,000 population. In 1881 the mean number of deaths
from small pox per 10,000 population was no less than 11.95.
The mean annual number of deaths per 10,000 from each of the
other six zymotic diseases in the 10 years, 1871-80, and in 1881
was as follows—from measles 3.3 in 1871-80 and 7.94 in 1881;
from scarlet fever 5.1 and 6.26 respectively; from diphtheria 1.2
in 1871-80, and as many as 324 in 1881. From whooping
cough the mean number of deaths in the 10 years was 6.4 per
10,000 population against 3.7 in 1881. This is a very excessive
mortality from whooping cough during the 10 years, larger in
fact than from small pox or any other zymotic disease except
diarrhoea, which was 8.3 per 10,000 population per annum
against 7.17 in 1881. The mortality from fever was also less in
1881 than the average, having been 3.4 against 37 in 1871-80.
Although the death-rate from the seven chief zymotic diseases
in Hackney was high, it was decidedly smaller than for all
London, as in the 10 years, 1871-80, the mean annual mortality
was 34.6 per 10 000 inhabitants in Hackney against 38'5 for all
London.