THE SMALL-POX IN LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 522, 12 September 1871, Page 2

THE SMALL-POX IN LONDON.

THREE HUNDRED DEATHS A

WEEK.

[From the London " Times," July I.] Tub deaths from this disease, in London, during the last weeh wore 232, against 245 and 240 in the two previous weeks. These numbers, however, are p,n increase on the preceding return of 228, vthich in its turn has been a welcome reduction from tho large weekly totals of 267 and 257. The disease has varied too capriciously to justify our building with much confidence on an apparent diminution, but, o:i the whole, there seems a hope that the mortality has at last reached its limit. The returns we reported on Monday, as made to the Metropolitan Asylums JBoard, from the temporary hospitals indicate little amendment; but the report of Dr. Bridges, the poor Jaw inspector, is much more encouraging. He furnishes information, not of the mortality, but of the number of cases of the disease which comes under the notice of the poor law authorities, and these show "a considerable decline, almost everywhere except in Marylebone and Paddington." There are three hundred and thirteen vacant beds in the temporary hospitals, which, are, therefore, ahead of the disease. This alone would be of considerable advantage since it renders prompt isolation practicable. These hopes, however, cannot blind us to the extreme gravity of the existing returns. For some time past the deaths from small pox in London have been at an average of nearly 250 a week, and have furnished from one-fifth to one-sixth of the total mortality of t hemetropolis. In some other English towns tho disease has attained the dimensions of a pestileuce. In Sunderland, for instance, the mortality has been at the annual rato of 23 per 1000, which is the rate representing the total mortality from all causes in the hirge cities of the United Kingdom. Southampton and Great Grimsby have suffered with similar severity. In London alone, let it be distinctly observed that as many as 1000 lives a month are now sacrificed to a perfectly preventable disease.