SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 79 



also because this matter looks like again becoming one of 

 public importance. 



Enteric Fever and its Incidence. 



It is instructive to notice the very remarkable way in which 

 the mortality from enteric fever has diminished during the 

 period of modern public health administration. The following 

 figures have been extracted from the Report of the Registrar- 

 General for 1919, and the decrease is most obvious : — 



Death Rate, per Million Persons living in England and Wales, 

 from Enteric Fever during the last 80 years. 



1838-1842... 



... 1,053 



1891-1895... 



... 174 



1847-1850... 



... 1,246 



1896-1900... 



... 175 



1851-1855... 



... 983 



1901-1905... 



... 113 



1856-1860... 



... 842 



1906-1910... 



70 



1861-1865... 



... 922 



1911-1915... 



47 



1866-1870... 



... 850 



1916 



30 



1871-1875... 



... 374 



1917 



28 



1876-1880... 



... 277 



1918 



26 



1881-1885... 



... 216 



1919 



16 



1886-1890... 



... 179 







It is to be noted that the statistics from 1838 to 1870 

 include enteric fever, typhus fever and pyrexia, these diseases 

 not being distinguished in the above data for the period in 

 question. There can be little doubt that the contribution 

 made by the two latter causes was considerable during the 

 first half of the nineteenth century. The conditions due to 

 the rapid development of the modern factory system, the 

 overcrowding and insanitary housing of that period, unemploy- 

 ment and general malnutrition among much of the artisan 

 and Labouring classes during the "hungry forties" — these 

 were, no doubt, responsible for the " destitution disease," which 

 we now know typhus to be. About 1870, however, enteric 

 fever became distinguished, and it alone appears in the table 

 for the years subsequent to thai date. During ili< i latter half 

 of the nineteenth century typhus fever practically disappeared 



