[Report 1898] / Sanitary Committee [- Medical Officer of Health], Cornwall County Council.

  • Cornwall (England). County Council.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1898] / Sanitary Committee [- Medical Officer of Health], Cornwall County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/22 (page 4)
    DIPHTHERIA & MEMBRANOUS CROUP. There were 33 deaths resulting from these combined diseases, equivalent to a death-rate of OTO per thousand of the population, and a ratio of 20*75 per cent, of the cases notified. The Rural proportion is 21 deaths, equal to a rate of 0*10 per thousand of its population, and a ratio of ]0*07 per cent, of the cases notified; and the Urban contribution is 12 deaths, equal to a rate of 0*09 per thousand of its population, and a ratio of 30 per cent, of the cases notified. It will thus be seen that although these diseases were more prevalent in the Rural districts the ratio of fatalities was greater by 20 per cent, in the Urban portion. ENTERIC or TYPHOID FEVER. Enteric fever caused 33 deaths, and the death-rate is identical with that of Diphtheria and Membranous Croup, viz,—0-10 per thousand of the population. The ratio of deaths to the cases notified was 15 06 per cent. 20 deaths occurred in the Rural districts, equal to a rate of O'lO per thousand of the Rural population, and a ratio of 23-25 per cent, to the cases notified, and 13 deaths in the Urban districts, equal to a similar rate of 0-10 per thousand of the Urban population, but the much smaller ratio of 9-77 per cent, to the cases notified. INFLUENZA. The 94 deaths shown in Table 3 under the head of Influenza is not correct by a long way. The figures are taken from the Medical Officers of Health Annual Reports, but in many instances, owing to no column being provided in the Register General’s forms for deaths due to this disease, such deaths are perforce included in the column under the head of all other diseases and causes. The monthly returns of the Medical Officers of Health, on forms provided by this committee and in which a column is set out for Influenza, give no less than 214 deaths resulting from this disease during 1898, equal to a death-rate of 0*66 per thousand of the population. 179 deaths occurred in the first 3 months of the year, during which time the disease assumed the character of a severe epidemic. The following extract is taken from the Committee’s Report for February, shewing the intense severity of the visitation:—“Cornwall is still in the grip of the Influenza epidemic. The disease has greatly developed said our last report, and nearly every district remains affected. The number of deaths directly due to it is returned as 110, 61 of which occurred in the Rural and 49 in the Urban portion. The origin of the disease seemed