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196
The number of deaths attributed to Fever
was only 27, a smaller number than has been registered
in any one year since 1861. The number of
Fever deaths in London was also considerably below
the average ; it was only 1,877. I have pointed out
in former Reports that the term fever in the
" Returns" includes severa1 diseases which have
some superficial resemblance to one another, but
which are as absolutely distinct from one another as
Small Pox is from Hooping Cough. The more
important of these fevers are Enteric or Typhoid
Fever, which is due to fecal poisoning, and generally
an outcome of defective drainage ; and Typhus,
which is supposed to have its origin in overcrowding,
and which is infectious in a high degree.
The former disease is rarely entirely absent from
among us; the latter occurs only in occasional
epidemics. The last epidemic in London was in the
years 1862, 1863, and 1864; since which time we
have been for the most part remarkably free from it.
During the last year or two, however, limited outbreaks
have been noted from time to time, as though
an epidemic of the disease were threatening. up to
the end of the present year however, no outbreak of
the kind has been observed in the Parish.
Small Pox, which became epidemic in London