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42
some unexplained cause it prevailed during the
fourth quarter of the year to an unusual extent in
the metropolis—the deaths during each week exceeding
the corrected average number in the corresponding
weeks of the last ten years. Not so in
England and Wales, as a whole, where the deaths
ascribed to fever, using the generic term, showed a
rate below the mean of the ten preceding corresponding
quarters. Of the 21 deaths, 9 occurred in
St. Mary's, and 12 in St. John's Sub-district. Seven
cases were removed from St. Mary's Sub-district—
6 being sent to Stockwell, and 1 to St. Mary's
Hospital.
All the cases which came to the knowledge of
the Sanitary Department were specially investigated,
with the view of tracing, if possible, the cause of the
disease. In some instances sanitary defects, allowing
of the escape of sewer air into the premises of the
respective occupants, were discovered; in other
cases no cause was apparent, and in the remaining
cases the disease was contracted outside the parish.
Diarrhoea.
Owing to the low temperature and abundant
rain (all during the summer months, the death-rate in
London from diarrhoea was below the average, being
0.80, as compared with a previous decennial average