View report page

7
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT.
Gentlemen,
In pursuance of the duty which annually devolves upon me,
I have the pleasure, for the nineteenth time, to present a short
review of the sanitary condition of the Saint Saviour's District, and
the work accomplished during the year 1874. The recurrence of
this obligation has, on almost every occasion, afforded me satisfaction
and pleasure.
As the death rate is the principal safe and approximate indication
of the general healthiness of the inhabitants, it is interesting and
encouraging to observe, from the statistics which I now place
before you, that the mortality from all causes is less, and from
Epidemic diseases is not greater than in the year preceding.
The total mortality of the District was 727 persons. Of this
number 104 Deaths were due to Zymotic disease, and the remaining
623 to all other causes combined. In this latter category, a
large number suffered and died from diseases to which the nature
of our climate renders the human frame peculiarly susceptible, such
as Phthisis, Bronchitis, and other complaints by which the respiratory
system is liable to be permanently, and too often fatally,
affected.
The severe cold of the last six weeks of the year considerably
increased the death rate of London among the extremes of age—
the very aged and the very young; but in your District the difference
in the last did not in any marked degree exceed the average of the
three preceding quarters.
Of the 104 persons who succumbcd to Epidemic disease during
the year, there died from
Pyœmia 5 Infantile Ecver 1
Erysipelas 1 Diphtheria 2
Measles 8 Whooping Cough 11
Scarlet Fever19 Diarrhœa 34
Typhus and Typhoid 7 Syphilis 6
Rheumatic Fever 2 Croup 8
In the Workhouse no Death was recorded as the result of Zymotic
disease.
Of the mortality of the remaining 623, 10 persons were registered
in Guy's Hospital who previously resided outside the DistrictThere
were 42 Coroner's Inquisitions: in the Parish of Christchurch
33, and in Saint Saviour 9. A large proportion of these Deaths
was due to violent, accidental, and sudden causes, which could