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
Camberwell 1911
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell.
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I-19
The chief incidence of the disease on the different ages and
districts is set out above in tabular form, and the ward numbers
comprising these districts are also shown.
A form is also set out which shows the result of the inspection
of the address of the notified, this being carried out on the first
receipt of any notification.
As in previous years we have offered disinfection in all cases of
death, and now, when we either have information that the patient
has been received into the infirmary or other institution, or, on the
other hand, the inspector discovers on his two monthly visits that
removal has taken place, disinfection is offered, and we are usually
able to get it carried out.
III.
Intimations and Notices served during 1911 in consequence of Consumption Notifications.
| Inspector's District. | Overcrowding. | Other Defects. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intimations. | Notices. | Intimations. | Notices. | |
| 1 | – | – | 42 | 5 |
| 2 | – | – | 22 | 7 |
| 3 | – | – | 18 | 2 |
| 4 | – | – | 52 | 19 |
| 5 | – | – | 13 | 3 |
| 6 | – | – | 28 | 3 |
| 7 | – | – | 25 | 12 |
| 8 | – | – | 7 | 2 |
| 9 | – | – | 9 | 4 |
| 10 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 4 |
| 11 | – | – | – | – |
| 1 | 1 | 230 | 61 | |
An example of the usual combination of phthisis and want was
brought to the notice of the Committee in respect to one of these
overcrowding cases. The father, the phthisical mother, and two
children were sleeping in a small room which formed part of a onestorey
two-roomed house off the Old Kent Road, the other room
being used for living and also for the sleeping of two other children.
The family were unable to move owing to the inability to pay a
higher rent, but as there was a piece of garden ground belonging
to the house I advised that the case was a suitable one in which to
try the effect of an open-air shelter. This apparently was used
with good result during last summer, but the patient has now gone
back into the Infirmary, and is not improving. There can be no
doubt that the action of the Committee did abate the insanitary
condition which otherwise it would have been impossible to do, and
I should certainly say it prolonged the life of the patient.
We had hoped to use the shelter in many other cases, but a
very serious difficulty arises in the fact that where it would be most
useful, the persons affected have often only one room of a manyroomed
house, and the only place available for the shelter to be put
is in a yard which is used in common by the other inmates of the
household.
With the beginning of 1912 the new system of compulsory