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24
It will be seen from table IV. that the number of deaths from
these diseases varies very much from the average nearly every
year. Thus, since 1873, the number of deaths from small-pox
had varied between 5 in 1874, 2 in 1875, 225 in 1881, and 210
in 1884. The disease was epidemic in Hackney in 1871, 1877,
1881 and 1884, the long interval between 1871 and 1877 having
been caused by the exceptional severity of the outbreak in 1871.
In 1884 the proportion of deaths from this disease to 1,000
deaths from all causes was nearly 57, against 194 for the 10
years 1874-83. The mortality from measles was less than
usual, the total deaths having been 55, against 117 in 1883,
and an average of 68 for the preceding 10 years. Scarlet fever
also oaused fewer deaths than usual, viz., 72, against the
average of 89, and the proportion of 19.4 deaths per 1,000
population, against the mean of 24.7. From diptheria,
however, there was a somewhat unusual number of deaths, viz.,
39, against the mean of 22, and 10.5 per 1,000 deaths from all
causes, against the mean of 6.2. Whooping cough was
unusually fatal, having occasioned 157 deaths, against the mean
of 103. The proportion of deaths from this disease to 1,000
deaths from all causes was 42.4, against the average of 28.5.
Typhoid fever caused 80 deaths, against an average of 52, and
rather above 21 deaths per 1,000, against a mean of 14. There
did not appear to be any special cause for the excess, as enquiry
was made in every case, and by no means an unusual amount
of bad drainage or of contact with the sick was ascertained.
Diarrhoea was also excessively fatal, 190 deaths having been
registered from this disease, against an average of 117, so that
the same causes which produced the excessive mortality from
enteric fever, were most probably those which induced the great
number of deaths from diarrhœa. The temperature was very
high in August, which accounts, to a groat extent, for the
increased number of deaths.