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7
but to the children about and within hearing. The disease is clearly
zj'motic, and happens but once in a lifetime ; still, the peculiar cough
is very apt to recur just as one hopes it has disappeared.
The predisposition to Whooping Cough, however, seems to be
augmented by Catarrh ; it is therefore advisable at such times as the
present, when this disease is epidemic, to protect children with the
utmost care from taking cold, and to treat the most simple Catarrh
with the same solicitude and precaution with which, in Cholera times, ^
we treat ordinary Diarrhoea, and look upon it as dangerous.
ANNUAL DEATH RATE.
The deaths during the year from all causes were 3020, being at the
rate of 23.4 per thousand persons living, or one death in every 42.6
of the population; while the mortality for the whole of London for
the same period was 23.1. I have calculated the mortality for the
Whole of London and for Bethnal Green for each quarter, and show
them in contrast below.
London.
Bethnal
Green.
June Quarter, 1875
21.9
22.0
September do
21.5
23.5
December do
24.3
23.4
March Quarter, 1876
24.7
25.2
The number of deaths from zymotic diseases has been 598, or at
the rate of 4.6 per thousand, one person in every 213.3 having
succumbed to one of this class of diseases—the corresponding rate
for London being 4.1.
The following table shows the percentage of each one on the total
number of deaths from the different zymotic diseases :—
Small Pox 0.16 per cent., or 1 in 598 deaths.
Measles 15.00 „ „ 6.66 „
Scarlatina 21.16 ,, „ 4.72 „
Diphtheria 2.33 ,, „ 42.85 „
Whooping Cough 30.66 ,, „ 3.26 ,,
Fever 8.05 „ „ 11.76 j,
Cholera 2.00 ,, „ 50.00 „
Diarrhoea 19.83 „ „ 5.04 „