View report page

25
The following table will show the fluctuations in the mortality of epidemic diseases, and
although we appear to be never free from them, there is a great difference annually in their
intensity and decline:—
Disease.
1866
Annual Reports Extracts.
1870
Deaths.
1867
1868
1869
Fever
17
10
12
15
13
67
Small Pox
4
18
6
3
5
36
Scarlatina
6
14
4
10
124
158
Measles
22
4
12
19
7
64
Whooping Cough
36
21
12
29
22
120
Diarrhœa
28
18
20
29
25
120
Cholera, Asiatic
...
21
...
...
...
21
113
106
66
105
196
586
Fever of the continued type was fatal in thirteen cases. One of these was registered as
relapsing fever: a kind of disease which has been said to be prevalent in some parts of
London, and fatal in many instances. In this parish we have had very little experience of it.
Small pox. The introduction of vaccination has exercised considerable influence in the
prevention of small pox, five deaths only having been registered.
Scarlatina. The most marked feature of the year was the extreme prevalence of scarlet
fever. It is a highly infectious disease, and very destructive to infantile life. In four previous
years it was destructive to thirty-four lives, and in the year which this report includes,
it caused 124 deaths.
From April 1st to June 30th, thirteen deaths were registered; July 1st to September
30th, thirty-four deaths; October 1st to December 31st, sixty-three deaths; January 1st, 1870,
to March 31st, fourteen deaths.
Scarlatina was very widespread, and I believe unusually fatal in its effects; it is, however,
impossible to declare the proportion of deaths to recoveries with exactness. The
epidemic was sometimes attended with acute affections of the brain, which terminated life in
a few hours, and dropsy was a frequent sequel.
In consequence of the presence of this disease, the Vestry appointed an additional
Inspector of Nuisances for a few weeks, who did good service in the inspection of houses,
circulating useful hints of prevention to the inhabitants, and attending to other sanitary
matters.
Measles. The Mortality from this disease was low, seven deaths having been registered.
Whooping cough is a disease which destroys more lives among children than some other
epidemic diseases, it is more uniform in its fatal effects, and twenty-five deaths were registered.
Diarrhoea caused 25 deaths, all under two years of age, save one.
Diseases of the respiratory organs always contribute largely to the number of deaths;
there have been registered fifty-three deaths from bronchitis, twenty-two from Pneumonia,
and seventy-three from Phthisis, a few more might be added, which would raise the aggregate
to more than a fourth part of the whole number of registered deaths.
In other classes of disease, the number of deaths will be found about the average of
former years.