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152
years (1888 and 1889) made the most alarming bounds,
the deaths rising from a total of 953 in 1887, first to
1,311, and then in 1889 to no less than 1,588, whereas
the decennial average, after correction for growth of
population, was only 932. In about half of the
Metropolitan sanitary areas the deaths have gone up
at least 50 per cent. since 1887, and in many of them
they have been doubled, and in some cases more than
trebled, in that short period."
"The mortality was above the decennial average
throughout the entire year, having only fallen in two
weeks to the average level; but its main excess was
in the four months from the middle of June to the
middle of October."
It may fairly be expected that with greater agreement
on the part of medical practitioners as to what
constitutes Diphtheria, the notification of this disease,
made compulsorily since October, 1889, and the means
of isolation provided by the Asylum Hospitals, will
prevent the spread and diminish the mortality from
this disease.
In London the rate was 0.37 per 1,000 inhabitants,
as compared with an annual average rate of 0.21
during the preceding decennium.
Whooping Cough caused 26 deaths—21 in St.
Mary's and 5 in St. John's Sub-district—equivalent
to an annual rate of 0.22 per 1,000 inhabitants. The