§ MR. HOPWOODasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether his attention has been directed to the prevalence of small pox in the sub-district of West Ham; whether the death rate has reached the rate of nearly 7,000 per million; whether the inhabitants of the district are vaccinated as numerously, as in any district in or near London; whether 3,000 per million is assumed to have been the rate of mortality from small pox in the last century; and, whether, in fact, some defect in sanitary precautions is the cause of such disease and mortality?
MR. GEORGE RUSSELL(who replied) said: We are aware that there has been a severe epidemic of small pox in the West Ham sub-district. The population of the district increased from 44,000 in 1871 to 101,000 in 1881, and is now very much larger. The number of deaths from small pox in the district during the present year has been 318. There are, however, in the district two small pox hospitals, one belonging to the Guardians of the West Ham Union, and the other to the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District. A considerable proportion of the persons who died in the district from small pox were brought into the district from the outside. The Returns for the last three years show that the number of children unaccounted for as regards vaccination has been greater than in other districts in the neighbourhood of the Metropolis. It has been estimated that the rate of mortality from small pox in the last cen- 1314 tury, during a period of 30 years, was 3,000 per 1,000,000; but it is obvious that no comparison can fairly be made between the average death-rate during a period of 30 years in the whole of England and Wales, and the number of deaths in four months during a severe epidemic in a particular locality. There has been insufficient hospital accommodation in the district; but, apart from that, we are not aware that defects in sanitary precautions have been the cause of the disease and mortality.