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48
small pox 9 against 13. The distribution of the deaths
from these diseases was as follows :—measles, 1 in Dulwich,
11 in Camberwell, 20 in Peckham, and 11 in St. George's;
diphtheria, 1 in Dulwich, 1 in Camberwell, 4 in Peckham,
and 3 in St. George's; fever 13 in Camberwell, 14 in
Peckham, and 19 in St. George's; and small pox, 3 in
Camberwell, Peckham, and St. George's severally.
There is, however, another zymotic disease which does
not appear in the mortuary returns as a cause of death,
and which, although it threatened late last year to constitute
a serious epidemic, and did in fact spread in
some parts of London, caused a very small number of
deaths, and in our own parish caused probably none.
I speak of relapsing or famine fever, a particular kind of
fever which (as one of its names indicates) has its origin
in the circumstances which attend destitution. But,
although originating in destitution, its ravages are by no
means necessarily limited to those who are destitute, for
it is highly infectious, and spreads readily amongst all
who are brought within the sphere of its influence.
The last epidemic of relapsing fever in the United Kingdom
ceased in 1855; since when, up to the middle of 1868,
no cases of this disease are known to have occurred in
London. But for two or three years prior to 1868 it
has prevailed in several parts of the Continent. It
was epidemic in St. Petersburg, in 1865, in East Prussia
(bordering on Poland), in 1867, and in Silesia in the spring
of 1868. The first case that was recognised as one of
relapsing fever in London was admitted into the London
Fever Hospital from Whitecliapel on the 4th July, 1868;