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5
the poorest population, and is most amenable to,
and has been most acted upon by sanitary measures.
In the next place I would point out the high rate
of mortality in the Workhouse during the past year,
as compared with any previous year. I have not
had an opportunity of comparing the ages and
diseases at which persons have died in the
Workhouse, but I can find no one cause to which I
can attribute the increased mortality of the Workhouse.
It will also be observed that the death in the
St. James's Square Division was less than in any
of the previous years since 1857, whilst the death
of the Golden Square Division is greater than in
any previous year of the six recorded in the Table.
ZYMOTIC DISEASES.
I now turn to the Tables for information with
regard to the various kinds of disease which afflict
the Parish. I have always regarded the group of
Zymotic Diseases as of most interest, because it is
these diseases which seem to be most under the
control of sanitary measures, and are most obviously
amenable to human agency. At the same time it
is most humiliating to find that it is this very class
of diseases that the great bulk of the people regard
as the necessary concomitants of their existence,
and take the least care to prevent. Yet it is the
most demonstrable of vital facts that populations
can be kept from the attacks of these diseases.