London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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City of London 1856

Report on the sanitary condition of the City of London for the year 1855-56

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total number of deaths in the workhouses was 456
—of which 231 were males, and 225 females. Of
these fifty.two belonged to the laborer class, forty.
one to the porter, ten to the clerk, twenty.three to
the tailor, seventeen to the metal worker, thirteen
to the publican, thirty.four to the shoemaker, fifteen
to the soldier, twenty.three to the carpenter, fifteen
to the cabman, twenty.nine to the shopkeeper, six
to the butcher, thirty.nine to the domestic, and the
rest are not specified. In all about 15 per cent, of
the deaths occurred in the workhouses. How many
more took place among those who were living
without, while in the receipt of parish assistance,
I cannot say. Nor can any estimate be formed of
the amount of preventable poverty that is represented
by these numbers.
That you have done something, however, towards
the removal of the most prominent causes of disease,
and have rendered more safely habitable the worst
districts of the City, is shown by the inspector's
returns for each week of the year: from these I
find that as many as 5,401 distinct inspections of
houses have been made, and that 1,215 notices have
been served for cleansing, draining, and otherwise
improving the state of each locality. Besides which
we have closed the last of the City churchyards,
and have banished, as I hope for ever, the practice
of burying the dead in the midst of the living. In
alluding to this matter for the last time, I may say