The Sun. — 1860-01-11 (London, England)

DEATHS IN LONDON IN THE LAST QUARTER OF 1849.  (Froni the Registrar-General's Deport.) In the 13 weeks that ended 31st December, 15,736 deaths were registered in London, of wheih 7,341 occurred in that part of the population which was passing the first 20 years of existence. The mortality was not so great as it was in the same period of 1858, when the deaths at all ages rose to 17,688. Last quarter exhibited extremes both in its mortuary and meteorological experience; for the weekly deaths were about 900 in the middle of October, and rose to nearly 1,700 at the end of December, and the mean weekly temperature of the air, which was 62 deg. at the commencement of the period, fell within a few weeks of its close to 29 deg. The mean temperature of the quarter was 43.1 deg., which is nearly the same as that of the corresponding period in 1855, but lower than in any corresponding period of the intervening years, especially 1857, when the mean temperature of its last three months rose to 48 deg. In comparing the results of the December quar--. tor for the years 1858 and 1859, it is a subjedt:or...:. satisfaction to note a decrease of the mortality from all miasmatic diseases, with only one important exception. That exception is furnished by small-pox, the deatles from which rose from 118 to 435. This total of 435 deaths in last quarter was drawn chiefly from the following sub-districts : —St. Mary Paddington, St. John Westminster, Kentish Town, St. Giles South, Whitecross-street, Town of Bethnal-green, Spitalfields, Mile-end Old Town _East, London-road, St. Peter 'Walworth, Waterloo-road (Ist and 2d parts), and Lambeth Church (2d part). The Registrar of St. John, Marylebone, refers to an insufficient supply of lymph for vaccination. Amongst those localities which as regards mortality from small-pox have enjoyed total or partial immunity in the quarter, the following may be specified :--13rompton, Hammersmith, and Fulham, Chelsea, Charing-cross, St. James Westminster, Tottenham-court-road, Hackney, St. Giles North, Holborn and Saffron-hill, Holton and Haggerston, Greenwich, and the subdistrict of St. James Bermondsey, in which last it deserves to be mentioned that not a single death from this disease has occurred for a period of nearly six months.  Last quarter 1,127 deaths were the result of scarlatina, and 141 of diphtheria. If the two complaints are taken together, it is shown that they were fatal in 31 cases in St. John, ll'estminster, in 40 in Kentish Town, 114 in the two sub-districts of Islington, 22 in Cripplegate, 53 in the three subdistricts of St. George-in-the-East, 54 in Mile-end (021 Town, dd part), 2241 inin he s u Lambeth-di inbleJthd i sctl hr tof rat (21\a' Waterloo-road nrad 8o in Greenwich East, 13 in Plumstead, and 26 in Rotherhithe. An open sewer, nearly 18 feet wide, known as the Black Ditch, putrid with the collected tribute of parishes and factories, forms a feature of Rotherhithe. Small-pox was not fatal except in one instance in this district, but several families living in the vicinity of the ditch were attacked by it. Intemperance among the adult population has not yet received a final blow, or even a heavy discouragement, from the active and well-intentioned efforts made for its suppression, judging from the number of deaths which directly flow from it within stated periods. Last quarter intemperance and delirium tremens caused 70 deaths ; in the four corresponding periods. of 1855-8 there were 50, 46, 76, and 48. Nine persons died from want of the necessaries of life ; 111 infants from want of breastmilk and inanition ; 23 children were murdered ; 92 were suffocated ; 133 mothers died after childbirth.