[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bermondsey,

  • Bermondsey (London, England). Parish. Vestry.
Date:
[1900]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bermondsey,. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in 1897, 328 in 1896, and 270 in 1895. The deaths from zymotic diseases were 14.4 per cent. of the total deaths from all causes, and equalled a death-rate of 3.4 per thousand in habitants. Inclusive of hospital cases there were 68 deaths from measles, 10 from scarlet fever, 88 from diphtheria, 29 from whooping cough, 1 from typhus, 18 from enteric fever, and 82 from diarrhæa. One death of a child was certified as cholera. It was probably a rapidly fatal case of zymotic diarrhœa. The total number of deaths from diarrhœa exceeds that here given, as many of them are certified as due to enteritis, mucoenteritis, gastro-enteritis, &c. The death-rates from zymotic diseases were :—measles, 0.79 ; scarlet fever, 0.12; diphtheria, 1.03; whooping cough, 0 34; fever, 0.01 ; and diarrhœa, 0.96. Cases of diphtheria have not been traced to any defective sanitary condition of houses. I am inclined to think that the use of the same cup at drinking fountains may be a means of spreading the disease among children. Diseases of the septic class caused 28 deaths. Four were referred to congenital syphilis, 4 to erysipelas, 2 to carbuncle, 2 to gangrene, and 16 to