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37
Quarterly Report, from October to December, 1861.
In the 13 weeks, ending December 28, there were
123 deaths, in the corresponding period last year, 153.
From zymotic diseases there were 20 deaths, viz.: 1
from measles, 5 from scarlatina, 5 whooping cough, 5
diarrhoea, 4 typhus fever; 21 of the deaths were from
consumption, and 21 from other diseases of the organs
of respiration. There were 3 deaths from diseases of
the brain, 9 from disease of the heart, 9 from diseases
of the organs of digestion, 12 from old age; 41 of the
deaths were in children under 5, 28 in persons over 60.
At these respective periods of life there is a remarkable
difference,for while last year we had 63 deaths in
young children, and 36 in persons over 60, and this
year 41 and 38; at the intermediate ages from
5 to 60, in the winter quarter of the last 3 years, there
was but little difference, the numbers being 65, 67, 68.
During the quarter there have been 171 new cases
of disease in the Workhouse, and 159 among the outdoor
poor, of these 78 were cases of bronchitis, 26 of
rheumatism, 1 of scarlatina, 1 of small pox, 26 of
fever ; but from these returns we do not obtain so
complete an idea of the amount of sickness among the
out-door poor as could be wished. The Medical Officers
of the Charing Cross Hospital attend many of the
poor at their own houses, but no record being kept of
these eases of disease, our statistics, especially when
typhus fever or other epidemic diseases prevail, are not
satisfactory. I have written to the Chairman of the
Weekly Board, requesting a return of the number of
cases of typhoid fever in the parish, which may have
been seen by the Medical Officers of the Charing Cross
Hospital, but I have received no reply to my letter.
That low typhoid fever prevailed in the district 1 know
from my own experience, and that of several neighbouring
medical practitioners; yet we may conclude