View report page

46
very badly off if our numbers are contrasted with those of other parishes. The fact seems
to be that there are certain years which come round in cycles or periods of four or
five years, at which times these and other diseases present an aggravated development,
Membranous Croup has caused two deaths.
Puerperal Fever—a disease to which lying-in women are specially obnoxious—has
caused five deaths.
INFLUENZA.
Although Influenza is not at present a notifiable disease, it has assumed such a
disastrous and threatening aspect that I should like to call your attention to some
remarks on it made by the Registrar-General, as they are confirmatory of remarks I
have already made to you at various meetings, since this complaint manifested so
virulent a form. There can now be very little doubt that many deaths from lung
mischief are due to Influenza as a primary cause: or if it be not that, it is an
aggravation of any following complaint. The quotation from the Registrar-General
deserves careful attention, and is:—"The increased mortality from diseases of the
respiratory system was most remarkable. In 1889, as shown in the annual summary for
that year, there had been a saving under this heading of 4,376 lives when the year's
mortality was compared with the average of the previous decennium; but in 1890 this
saving was transformed into a loss of 2,143 lives. This striking change was entirely
due to the enormous mortality from lung diseases in the first and the last months of
the year. In January there was a sharp, though not very lengthy, outbreak of Influenza,
and though the deaths directly ascribed to this epidemic influence only numbered 303
in the month, and were not classified among diseases of the respiratory organs but
separately in the zymotic class, there can be no doubt that the much larger excess of
deaths concomitantly attributed to respiratory diseases were in reality cases of Influenza.
For, in the first place, the enormous and sudden increase in these deaths occurred at
a time when the ordinary cause of increased mortality from lung diseases, namely, severe
cold, was conspicuously absent, the mean temperature in January having, in fact, been
no less than 7°.1 Fahr, above the average for that month. Secondly, the usual winter