View report page

8
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
The mortality of London, during the past year, was
considerably in excess of the average of the four and twenty years
preceding. The rate of mortality for the complete year was 2.645
per cent. of the population. This was exceeded in 1847—the
Influenza year—and in the two Cholera years 1849 and 1854. But
the average of 25 years, which include those epidemic periods, was
only 2.482, which gives for 1864 an excess of more than two deaths
per thousand beyond the average of the last quarter of a century.
As this increase of mortality does not appear to have been
confined to any particular districts, it may bo legitimately attributed
to the long continuance of cold weather. In seven months of the
year the mean temperature was below the average of the 23 years
preceding, and in only two out of the remaining live was it slightly
above it. Small Pox proved fatal in 2,012 cases in 1868, and in
only 537 last year; and Scarlet Fever, which rose to 5,075 deaths
in 1863, was fatal in only 8,242 instances in 1864. The prevailing
epidemics were Measles, Whooping Cough, Typhus, and Diarrhoea.
From the statistical tables I have the honor to submit for your
inspection, you will observe, that the same causes which have raised
the death rate of London have also increased the mortality of the
Saint Saviour's District; and therefore, although the result is unfavorable
compared with the previous year, it is not to any large
extent attributable to local causes. Taking the population of 1861
as the basis of calculation, the per centage of deaths in your district
contrasts very favorably with the rest of London ; and although the
population of the Metropolis has probably increased in greater proportion
than that of Saint Saviour, it may fairly be concluded, that
if it were possible to base a calculation upon a corrected census, your
district would still admit of favorable comparison.
During the nine years this Board has been in existence, the
number of deaths have been respectively 868, 920, 1,047, 996,
929, 1,066, 918, 828, and 891. The mortality of 1864 is therefore
63 in excess of the year preceding, but less by 49 than the
average of the nine years.
In London, the South Districts, and the district of Saint
Saviour, the deaths from Epidemics have been respectively about
one-fifth the of whole mortality ; and it is interesting to observe,