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6
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT.
Gentlemen,
The pleasure I have in presenting to your notice my Annual
Report is greatly enhanced by the very favourable account I am
enabled to give of the sanitary condition of your District for the
vear ending December 31st, 1872. There were during that
period 1,114 Births, viz., 555 in the parish of Christchurch and
559 in that of St. Saviour. The number of Deaths in the
District amounted to 683, of which, 361 occurred in C'hristchurch
parish, while St. Saviour's numbered 322, the excess of Births over
the number of Deaths being 131 ; but by far the most gratifying
feature that 1 have to present is, that the mortality from diseases
supposed to be preventable by sanitary precautions has declined
to a very considerable extent,—the total decrease in the number
of Deaths from epidemic diseases being 46, in comparison with
the number in the year ending 1871. Such pleasing results cannot
fail to have a beneficial effect in removing any doubts, if such
could exist, of the vital importance of stringent sanitary measures.
The following extract from a Table which I have carefully
prepared, shewing in detail the comparison of the number of
deaths from epidemic diseases in St. Saviour's District in 1872 and
the preceding year, will afford a simple and at the same time most
favourable illustration of the subject, and will doubtless be rend
with interest. The decrease in the number of deaths from Small-pox
compared with those in the previous year is 50, viz., 15 against 65;
a most remarkable evidence of the efficacy of vaccination as a
preventive to that terrible epidemic. I am anxious while on this
important subject to state my decided conviction that Small-pox
might not only bo controlled, but entirely eradicated by perseverance
in successful vaccination and re-vaccination. I would here refer to
the statistics in the report of Dr. C. MeCAnn, Medical Superintendent
of the Stockwell Small-pox Hospital, in which he shows that while
the mortality in vaccinated cases is 11.8 per cent., in those cases
where vaccination has been neglected it shows a percentage of