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7
DISPROPORTION OF MORTALITY IN THE WARDS.
I must confess that I was not prepared to find so great a
difference in the mortality of the Wards. Although I was well
aware that in the West Ward were more cases of disease and
death than in the others, the excess has occasioned me some
surprise. Figures, however, are hard things, and are not easy
to be got over. While it must be borne in mind that the
foregoing Table gives the mortality for one quarter only, and
is not an average, yet it is right to endeavour to explain or
account for that which appears to be an undue proportion of
deaths in the East Ward, which one would have supposed to
have been the healthiest of the five, and the West.
The East Ward contains about 193 acres, as near as I can
ascertain, and the number of persons to the acre is 37; as
compared with the West Ward, the proportion is as 1 to 4¼.
Here are two of the principal conditions for a state of sound
public health,—open ground, and no over-crowding; yet we
have it not. The solution is obtained by reference to the
Registrar's Weekly Returns, and the Parochial Medical Officer's
books, an examination of which will show that much sickness
and a number of deaths take place in the new town which has
sprung up in the last few years at the rear of the Edinburgh
Castle Tavern, sometimes called the Rhodeswell Estate. These
houses form a considerable proportion of the inhabited houses of
the whole Ward, and have been constructed and remain in a
notoriously bad condition. The houses have been built, and
most of them inhabited several years; yet the roads are not
made up, and the district is destitute of drainage. On account
of the lowness of the level, up to the present time it has been
a matter of considerable difficulty to accomplish the drainage of
this part, while its want has been extensively felt. The difficulties
have now been overcome, to a useful extent at least; sewers will
soon be constructed, and the roads made up. Happily, the
Building Act of 1855, and the Local Management Act, will
effectively prevent any similar future attempt to secure individual
gain at the expense of public health. The drainage of a new
street is now made before the houses are built, instead of after.