Annual reports of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, for the year 1887 / Metropolitan Asylums' Board.

  • Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England). Statistical Committee.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual reports of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, for the year 1887 / Metropolitan Asylums' Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    given to the increasing tendency on the part of the inhabitants of the Metropolis to avail themselves of the means of isolation provided in the Managers’ Hospitals, by the issue by the Local Government Board, in July, of an order authorising the admission of patients upon the order of a Believing Officer, or Master of a Workhouse, accompanied by a certificate signed by a Poor Law Medical Officer, or by any registered medical practitioner. The following observations made by the Kegistrar-General in his last-issued Annual Summary tend to confirm this view:— “The deaths from Scarlet Fever numbered 1,447, giving a rate “ at 0*34 per 1,000. This rate was higher than in either of the two “ preceding years, 1885 and 1886; higher also than in the years “ 1872 and 1873; but, with these four exceptions, was lower than in “ any single year included in our records of this disease, which go “ back to 1859 (Table XIII.); and 28 per cent, below the decennial ic average, which was 0*47 per 1,000 (Table IV.) But, though the “ mortality was thus exceptionally low, much alarm was entertained “ as to this disease in the autumn and winter, the general public “ having been led to form an exaggerated idea of its prevalence. “ This was partly due to the fact that the disease was, as already “ noted, somewhat more prevalent than in either of the two imme¬ diately preceding years, 1885 and 1886, but was in the main “ attributable to the severe strain to which the Managers of the “ Metropolitan Hospitals were subjected in order to meet the increased “ demand for hospital accommodation. For, as we pointed out in the “ Annual Summaries both for 1885 and 1886, there is a rapidly “ increasing tendency on the part of Londoners to avail themselves in “ case of Scarlet Fever of the means of isolation provided by the “ Metropolitan Hospitals. This is shown by the increasing proportion “ borne by the hospital deaths to the deaths outside those Institutions. “ Thus, in 1878, to repeat figures given in the last summary, the “ deaths from Scarlet Fever in the London Fever and Metropolitan “ Asylum Hospitals were only 7 per cent, of the whole mortality “ from that disease in London; in 1879-82 they were from 9 to 11 “ per cent.; in 1883 the percentage rose to 13*2; in 1884 to 17*6 ; in “ 1885 to 20*2; in 1886 to 22*7; while finally, in 1887, it reached the “ high figure of 36*6; that is to say, considerably more than a third “ of the deaths from this disease in 1877 occurred in these hospitals. “ It may, however, be supposed that, although the Scarlet Fever “ mortality was below the average when the whole year is taken into “ account, yet it was unusually prevalent in the shorter period in “ which the epidemic occurred, namely, in the latter half of the year. “ But even this was not the case; for the deaths registered in the six “ months, July to December, were only 1,084, whereas, according to “ the decennial average, they would have been 1,185. “ Assuming the case-mortality in the hospitals to represent the “ case-mortality in the whole of London, the total number of cases of “ Scarlet Fever of equal severity to those admitted into hospital “ must have been as follows in each of the last eight years :— “ 1880 ... 28,039 cases. “ 1881 ... 21,376 ., “ 1882 ... 23,194 „ “ 1883 ... 18,748 „ 1884 1885 1886 1887 13,912 cases. 8,886 „ 8,185 „ 13,841 „ ” • • •