959

THE ENTRIES FOR THE SESSION 1892-93.

THE entries at the Medical Schools for the ensuing session, Iso far at least as the metropolitan schools are concerned, arenow nearly complete, and by the courtesy of the Deans ofthe various institutions we have been enabled to tabulate the

figures in a manner which will prove useful in many ways.Returns have not been received from either the Scotch or

Irish Schools of Medicine, as work there has been resumedonly during this present week. Notwithstanding the factthat the General Medical Council now requires medicalstudents to attend for five years instead of four, the entriesat five of the Medical Schools are much larger this year than

they were last year. The total number of entries at all theMedical Schools show an increase as compared with last year.

1 Exclusive of those Preliminary Scientific Students who have also entered for the Curriculum or for Special Courses.2 Including Bacteriology. S Entry not complete.

NOTE-The Scotch enrolment goes on for nearly a month, yet the statistics cannot be obtained. t Information not supplied.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN thirty-three of the largest English towns 6153 births and8382 deaths were registered during the week ending Oct. 15th.The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which hadbeen 16’6 and 17’8 per 1000 in the preceding two weeks,declined again last week to 17’3. In London the ratewas 17’1 per 1000, while it averaged 17’5 in the thirty-twoprovincial towns. The lowest rates in these towns were 8 ’4in Croydon, 120 in Derby, 13 0 in Bolton, and 134 inCardiff ; the highest rates were 20 ’2 in Liverpool, 20 ’9 inBlackburn, 23-3 in Salford, and 30-6 in Preston. The 3382deaths included 389 which were referred to the prin-cipal zymotic diseases, against numbers declining from989 to 505 in the preceding six weeks; of these, 123 re-sulted from diarrhoea, 77 from measles, 59 from diphtheria,53 from scarlet fever, 39 from I fever" (principallyenteric), 34 from whooping-cough, and 4 from small-pox.No fatal case of any of these diseases occurred last weekin Derby ; in the other towns they caused the lowest death-rates in Plymouth, Wolverhampton, and Halifax ; and thehighest rates in Manchester, West Ham, Oldham, Salford,and Preston. The greatest mortality from measles occurredin West Ham, Brighton, Bradford, Huddersfield, Oldham,and Salford; from scarlet fever in West Ham ; fromwhooping-cough in Nottingham, Birkenhead, and Preston ;from "fever" in Sunderland; and from diarrhoea in Leeds,Manchester, Gateshead, and Preston. The 59 deaths fromdiphtheria included 46 in London, 2 in West Ham, and 2 inManchester. One death from small-pox was registered inLiverpool, one in Manchester, one in Oldham, and one inLeeds, but not one in London or in any other of thethirty-three large towns ; four cases of this disease wereunder treatment in the Metropolitan Asylum Hospitalsand 7 in the Highgate Small-pox Hospital on Saturdaylast. The number of scarlet fever patients in theMetropolitan Asylum Hospitals and in the LondonFever Hospital at the end of the week was 3796,against numbers increasing from 3052 to 3628 on the

preceding eight Saturdays ; 503 new cases were admittedduring the week, against 369 and 412 in the preceding twoweeks. The deaths referred to diseases of the respiratoryorgans in London, which had increased from 114 to 184 inthe preceding six weeks, further rose to 241 last week,but were 32 below the average. The causes of 70)or 2’1 per cent., of the deaths in the thirty-three townswere not certified either by a registered medical practitioneror by a coroner. All the causes of death were duly certi-fied in Cardiff, Leicester, Bradford, Leeds, Sunderland,and in nine other smaller towns ; the largest proportionsof uncertified deaths were registered in West Ham, Liver-pool, Sheffield, and Hull.

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HEALTH OF SCOTCH TOWNS.

The annual rate of mortality in the eight Scotch towns,which had been 17’1 and 18-5 per 1000 in the preceding twoweeks, declined again to 18’0 during the week endingOct. 15th, but exceeded by 0’7 per 1000 the mean rate

during the same period in the thirty-three large Englishtowns. The rates in the eight Scotch towns ranged from12 -6 in Leith and 13 4 in Dundee to 20 -6 in Perth and 21-5 inGreenock. The 500 deaths in these towns included 33which were referred to measles, 16 to scarlet fever, 13 todiarrhoea, 8 to whooping-cough, 3 to "fever," 2 to diph-theria, and not one to small-pox. In all, 75 deaths resultedfrom these principal zymotic diseases, against 84 and 78 inthe preceding two weeks. These 75 deaths were equal’to an annual rate of 2’7 per 1000, which was 07 abovethe mean rate last week from the same diseases iiathe thirty-three large English towns. The fatal cases

of measles, which had increased from 12 to 22 in the precedingthree weeks, further rose to 33 last week, of which17 occurred in Edinburgh, 8 in Glasgow, and 4 in Leith. Thedeaths referred to scarlet fever, which had been 17 and 16in the previous two weeks, were again 16 last week, and in-cluded 11 in Glasgow and 2 in Edinburgh. The 13 fatal casesof diarrhoea showed a further marked decline from recentweekly numbers, and included 8 in Glasgow. The 8 deathsfrom whooping-cough corresponded with the number in the-preceding week, and included 6 in Glasgow. The fat&l :.ases