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
Kensington 1911
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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| Month. | Week ending. | Number of Deaths. | Temperature of Air. | N. Kensington. | Norland. | i Golborne. | St. Charles. | Pembridge. | Hclland. | Brompton. | Redcliffe. | Earl's Court. | S. Kensington. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June | 10 | 1 | 62 deg. | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 17 | 1 | 57 „ | l | 0 | 1 | ||||||||
| 24 | 4 | 59 „ | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||
| July | 1 | 1 | 57 „ | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| 8 | 0 | 66 ,, | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 15 | 2 | 65 „ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 22 | 1 | 69 „ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 29 | 7 | 71 „ | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| August | 5 | 8 | 68 „ | 8 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 12 | 16 | 72 „ | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 19 | 16 | 69 „ | 13 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 26 | 18 | 64 „ | 17 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| September | 2 | 16 | 65 „ | 16 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | 13 | 67 „ | 10 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| 16 | 4 | 60 „ | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 23 | 17 | 54 „ | 16 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 30 | 3 | 55 „ | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| October. | 7 | 5 | 48 „ | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | 4 | 52 „ | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 21 | 4 | 54 „ | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 28 | 2 | 48 „ | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| November | 4 | 2 | 48 „ | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 145 | 133 | 49 | 42 | 30 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 12 | ||
The table shows a comparatively close correspondence between the rise and fall of the
temperature of the air and the increase or diminution in the weekly mortality from diarrhoea.
Attention has already been called to the fact that more than 90 per cent. of the infants who die of
diarrhoea are artificially fed, and the obvious inference is that the chief cause of diarrhoea is the
consumption of food in which early putrefaction has been produced by the excessive heat of the
atmosphere.
As against this theory, which does not meet with general acceptance, may be placed the fact
that in spite of the excessive heat in 1911 certain districts either escaped altogether or were not
attacked by diarrhoea until late in the year.
At the end of the week terminating on August l2th, after six weeks of excessive heat, there
were three districts in North Kensington where well-marked groups of deaths had occurred. One
group was situated in the crowded streets north of the Great Western Railway, the second in the
Blechynden Street area, and the third in Notting Dale. The distinguishing features common to
these three areas are poverty, crowding in houses and the low social rank of the inhabitants. On
the same date only one death, which occurred August 4th, had been registered as due to diarrhœa
in the whole of the Pembridge Ward, as compared with 30 deaths in the neighbouring wards of
Norland and St. Charles. The greater part of Pembridge is inhabited by well-to-do persons, but
the Bolton Road division contains a small population which is on the whole as low in the social
scale as any community in the Borough. It is therefore of interest to note that in this particular
area, which presents all the conditions favourable to diarrhœa, no deaths occurred until August 31st,
when an infant aged eight months died of "infective enteritis" at 19, Bolton Road. Within the
next two days two further deaths from diarrhœa in infants occurred, one at 13, Bolton Road and
one in the immediate neighbourhood, at 19, Lonsdale Road. A fourth child, admitted to the