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disease was very prevalent in many other parts of the district.
Indeed, there were more cases of scarlet fever reported to me
than of small pox, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and simple
continued or other ill-defined fevers put altogether, as there
were 459 cases of scarlet fever, 79 of small pox, 76 of diphtheria,
124 of typhoid fever, and 7 of other fevers. There were also
but few cases of zymotic diseases in the neighbourhood of the
hospital, viz., about 1 per 1000 population of scarlet fever
withiu a quarter-mile radius, against 2.5 per 1000 for the whole
district; and 0.8 cases of typhoid fever within the quarter-mile
radius, against 0.6 for the whole district. There were 57
deaths from typhoid fever in the whole district against 124
cases reported, so that there must have been more than 0.6 cases
per 1000 population. As a far larger proportion of the cases
of small pox, which occur within the quarter-mile radius, are
removed to the hospital than amongst the population generally,
and as I do not get a large number of private cases reported to
me, I should say that in proportion to population there were at
least quite as many cases outside the quarter-mile radius as
within it. At the same time it must not be forgotten that the
disease has not been epidemic during the year, so that the
epidemic influence, as it is termed, has been absent; that the
number of cases treated in the hospital has been very limited ;
and well within the number which has hitherto, apparently,
been innocuous to the neighbourhood.
In the early part of November a severe outbreak of
diarrhoea occurred at Clapton Common, and the upper part of
Stamford Hill, the disease attacking the inmates of most of the
houses (which are of a good class) between the 3rd and 6th of
the month. I cannot state the precise number attacked, as the
medical practitioner who gave me the information thought that
a house-to-house visitation would not be of any practical
assistance, and might prove injurious by increasing the existing
alarm. The outbreak was so sudden and general that it clearly
arose from some common cause—that is to say, from polluted
milk or water, or from sewer gas. The time of year and the