View report page

8
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
I havo the honour again to review the sanitary condition
and operations of the St. Saviour's District, and it affords me much
pleasure to havo to record the fact that in no previous year sinco the
establishment of your Board have the results presented so encouraging
and favorable an aspect.
Tho amount of difference between the mortality of the wholo of
London in the years 1867 and 1868 is scarcely appreciable ; and the
same remark is equally applicable to the Southern District. In St.
Saviour's, however, the mortality fell from 821 in 1867 to 715 in
1868, although the former year contained tho records for 52 weeks,
while 58 are included in the latter. The proportion of deaths to
every 1000 living persons in tho whole of the Metropolis was 28.59;
in the Southern District 22.88, and in St. Saviour's District 19.88.
It is probable, as I havo observed in former reports, that a revised
census of the population would somewhat modify the difference ; but
I venture to think not diminish it to the extent exhibited in the accompanying
tables. That the population of tho District is not now
decreasing is evidenced by the fact that the number of births registered
is always in considerable excess of the deaths ; and lust year
the excess amounted to no fewer than 377. You will observe from
the statistical tables that, in comparing the two years, classified according
to ago and sex, there was no increase of deaths at any of the
specified periods of life ; but, with two exceptions, a decrease in all.
The largest comparative difference was among tho aged. This was
doubtless to some extent due to the warm summer, and the mildness
of tho early part of the winter.
Notwithstanding the large total decrease, there was an excess of 8
deaths from epidemic disease ; but this was unhappily the case with
other districts, and to a larger extent. There is usually a law of
compensation in nature, and it is certain that those causes which
tended to generate tho zymotic class of diseases had the opposite
effect upon others. This is manifest from the fact that there were
70 fewer deaths from Phthisis and diseases affecting the respiratory
organs than were recorded in the year preceding. The difference in
the epidemic diseases is made up of the following items:—There
was a diminished mortality of 8 from Small-pox, 25 from Measles,
3 from Diphtheria, and 1 from Cholera ; but there was an increase
of 17 from Scarlet Fever, 5 from Typhus, 11 from Whooping Cough,
and 12 from Diarrhoea. From Diarrhoea there was a largo increase
of deaths throughout London.