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Prevailing Diseases.
Table IV.—Returns of Diseases—although at present incomplete,
supply much useful information as to the character of any
epidemic in the Parish. Small-pox and Typhus are not common
here; some of the cases are known to have been imported into
the District. In the month of October at St. Mary's Hospital
and the Public Dispensaries, cases of Diarrhoea were frequent.
One death of Cholera, and eight deaths of Diarrhoea, chiefly
in young children, during the three months, is a remarkably small
number out of a population of 94,000.
Of Measles, Scarlet Fever and Whooping Cough, 245 cases of
Disease are reported during the three months; but in no locality
could these diseases be said to be in sufficient force to be
considered an epidemic.
The average numbers of deaths from epidemic disease were
8 weekly; and in the week ending November 16, only 2, in the
following week, only 6 were recorded in the Returns of the
Registrar General.
A glance at Table VI. shows the weekly deaths from different
causes, and the remarkably low figures of deaths from Small-Pox
(2), Scarlatina (9), and Fever. Out of 14 deaths described as
fever, typhus, typhoid, remittent and infantile, only 4 cases were
true typhus, which in a population now closely approaching
100,000, is ample evidence for the refutation of mendacious
assertions made by a reporter in the local press.
Systematic Sanitary Visitation.
A considerable addition has been made to the systematic
Sanitary inspection of streets and houses in which disease and
deaths have been recorded. Clarendon Street is complete in the
sanitary details of every house. Woodchester Street, Cirencester
Street, and other densely inhabited localities, are under observation,
and a large number of Sanitary orders, consequent upon
inspection, have been issued. The Poor Law Medical Officers,
the Medical Officers of public Dispensaries, and the several
medical men in the district, whose returns of diseases occurring
in their private practice, make them acquainted with the earliest
cases and seats of infectious diseases, are invited to communicate
information respecting existing Sanitary defects in any locality
that appears to be neglected. The Authorities charged with the
execution of Sanitary laws, are anxious for Table IV. and V. to
be more complete.
Much valuable information might be gained from the
Relieving Officers, tending to throw light upon the condition
of the indigent class who swell the ranks where the causes of
disease and death are most prolific in certain well-known places.