London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Mile End 1864
Report of the Medical Officer of Health to the Vestry of Mile End Old Town
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following report of work done. Besides this, much that
cannot be specified falls to the lot of the officers, to keep
the Hamlet as free as possible from the proximate causes of
ill health.
INSPECTOR'S RETURN OF NUISANCES REMOVED UNDER HIS SUPERVISION DURING THE YEAR ENDING MARCH, 1864.
| Privies emptied | 147 |
| Drains cleansed | 136 |
| Privies connected with sewer, panned, and trapped. | 198 |
| Cesspools emptied | 46 |
| Removals of swine | 47 |
| Removals of accumulations of offensive matter | 117 |
| Houses cleansed | 48 |
| Total | 739 |
In conclusion, Gentlemen, allow me to again congratulate
you on the favourable state of the Hamlet. Attention cannot
be too persistently or too frequently called to the means
adopted to preserve health and decrease mortality. We
know the causes which promote them, and can scarcely do
better than spread, as widely as possible, the knowledge of
those causes among the ratepayers, particularly in those
parts of the Hamlet used especially by the poor. Every one
should know that fever is the child of dirt, and that an
unventilated room or a close alley teems with disease. Every
one should be made acquainted with the fact that the