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11
"ing its way to the parks, the merchant returning
"to his suburban residence, or the affluent riding
"in his carriage may be stricken with disease and
"death by the invisible agents of destruction steal"ing
from every shaft and gully-hole of our system
"of sewers. It would, I believe, be better for
"these conduits of our house refuse to be entirely
"open to the air, than that they should be allowed
"to blow off at regular intervals as they do now,
"a current of concentrated poison. To my mind,
"the Metropolitan Board of Works is incurring a
"fearful responsibility in neglecting the repeated
"warnings it has received on this important part
"of the sanitary arrangements of the Metropolis,
"placed under their control."
In the occurrence of scarlet fever in this part of
London we have not been peculiar, as this disease
carried off within the bills of mortality of London
4,118 persons. This is at the rate of one death to
every 590 persons of the living population. We
have, however, every reason to be thankful that
the scourge has fallen upon us more lightly, as but
one in every 1,200 of our population have fallen
victims to this disease. With regard to all forms
of zymotic disease, our parish this year contrasts
equally favourably with the rest of London.
Whilst in the parish of St. James, Westminster,
the mortality from small-pox, measles, scarlet fever,
hooping cough, diarrhœa, and typhus, was but one