Mr. R.D.R. Sweeting's report to the Local Government Board on diphtheria in the Farnham registration district / [R.D.R. Sweeting].

  • Sweeting, R. Deane.
Date:
[1885]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. R.D.R. Sweeting's report to the Local Government Board on diphtheria in the Farnham registration district / [R.D.R. Sweeting]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It is thus seen that in the five years more than one-fourth of the total mortality in the Registration District from the seven specified diseases has been due to Diphtheria, which,^having regard to population, has affected both Sub-districts almost equally. In each Sub-district, too, the Diphtheria rate for the period amounts to about one-fourth of its total zymotic rate. In Table (13.) differentiation of the Sub-district mortalities from Diphtheria is made according as the disease has affected the several Sanitary divisions of the Registration District. 1 TABLE (B.) Showing the Deaths registered from Diphtheria in the several Sanitary Districts comprised in the Farnham Registration District during the Ten Years 1875 to 1884. Sub-district. Sanitary District. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. Total. Diphtheria rate per 1,000 living. r Aldershot Urban District. (Population in 1881, 20,155.) - - - - - - - 1 10 29 40 1-9 Frimley -< Farnliam f Part of Farnham') A Kural District O g (Population in US 1881, 6,854) - s g'w 1 Part of Farnham o <* Bural District A — (Population in 'E .a 1881, 8,898) -J ^ 3 - 3 1 -- -1 2 '2 2 -2 - - - 1 1 .2 2 12 -14 38 3 -41 65 4-1 Farnham Urban District. (Population in 1881, 4,488.) 1 1 1 3 8 4 18 4-0 Begistration District of Farnliam - 3 1 2 3 1 1 - 6 32 74 123 3-0 As directed by the Medical Officer of the Board, I sought, on arriving in the District, to learn what mortality from “ Croup ” and throat-illness generally had in each Sanitary District been associated with Diphtheria prevalence. Upon examination for this purpose of the Sub-district local death registers, it quickly became apparent that in Frimley Sub-district, and almost wholly in that part of it included in the Aldershot Urban Sanitary District, “ Croup ” and “ Laryngitis ” had in recent years been very fatal to young children, and that the mortality thus caused in Aldershot, when added to that registered from Diphtheria there, gave rates of fatal throat-illness differing widely (especially in 1882 and 1883) from those based on Diphtheria mortality as recorded in the Quarterly Returns of the Registrar-General. Similarly, as regards the Farnham Sub-district, deaths registered from “ Croup ” and “ Laryngitis,” when added to those from Diphtheria, raised the mortality from throat-illness to considerably more than that recorded as from Diphtheria alone in the Registrar-General’s Returns. But the increase in the Farnham Sub-district thus determined was nothing like so great as that in the Frimley Sub-district, and especially in that part of it comprised in the Aldershot Urban Sanitary District. Moreover, in Farnham Sub-district, deaths from “ Croup ” and “ Laryngitis ” practically ceased to be registered after 1882, whereas in Frimley Sub-district, and especially in Aldershot, deaths from these complaints continued after this date to be recorded locally until the third quarter of 1884, in even greater abundance than before. The facts here referred to are duly brought out in the subjoined Tables (C.) and (D.), the latter of which exhibits the respective mortality rates from Diphtheria, and from “Croup” and “Laryngitis,” in each of the three Sanitary Districts comprised within the two Registration Sub-districts. An account of the Aldershot “ Croup,” and of its ramifications, will be given in some detail in dealing with the recent behaviour of Diphtheria in each of the several Sanitary Districts.