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76
Gentlemen,
During the month included between the 25th of July and the 22nd of August, 50
births and 41 deaths are recorded.
The mortality is the heaviest that I have had to report to you, and during the same
period last year 22 deaths only were registered.
The excess above the average is fully attributable to the increased rate of mortality in
Sydenham, 19 deaths having been registered in this "Ward alone, against 7 in August,
1856.
Twenty-two deaths have occurred in children under five years of age, from various
causes.
Fourteen deaths have taken place from epidemic disease.
In Blackheath.—One typhus, Osborne Place; until recently in an offensive state from
deficient drainage and abutting upon Bath Place, an undrained and offensive locality.
In Lewisham.—One diarrhoea, Hanover Street. (No water supply).
One diarrhoea, Rushey Green. (No water supply, and only partially drained).
One diarrhoea, Loampit Hill. (No drainage or water supply).
In Sydenham.—One hooping cough, Upper Sydenham. (Offensive drainage at Kirkdale
and adjacent).
One hooping cough, Dartmouth Row. (Partly drained, and offensive from Steele's
Cottages, adjacent).
One hooping cough, Wells Road. (Offensive drainage at the back, and offensive
privies and cesspools).
Two malignant scarlet fever. (Mr. Cowburn's house Bell Green. No drainage and
extremely offensive. Adjacent to sewer).
One diarrhoea, the Grove, adjacent to Wells Road. (Drainage, an opening in the
ditch ; also very offensive).
One diarrhœa, Belle's Cottages, West Kent Park. (This locality, although apparently
drained, is full of cesspools, and many of the houses are offensive).
In Penge.—Two typhus fever, one with sloughing mouth, North Surrey Schools.
(Infirmary not well ventilated, and offensive from closets in the building).
One diarrhoea, Woodbine Grove.
During the last month diarrhoea has been extremely prevalent in the district, and in
several instances fatal. In Pear Tree or Schloss Alley, in Loampit Yale, where cholera
first showed itself in July, 1849, the greater number of the inhabitants have been
affected by it. Although drained here into the sewer, the houses have no water supply,
therefore the closets are inefficient from the difficulty of flushing them, and the inhabitants
procure their impure water for drinking, as well as other purposes, from the
running stream below the mill, which is immediately contaminated by the sewage of the
houses in Mill Terrace, North Cottages, &c., near Angus's mill.
Where water is supplied, I should urge the importance of frequently cleansing cisterns
or other receptacles for water. Many cisterns which I have examined lately, from the
length of time which has elapsed since they were cleaned, contained water in a decidedly
unfit state for drinking. The most pure supply is liable to contamination from decomposition
and dirt of this kind.
Several nuisances, detrimental to health, require your order for their removal.
Some of the houses in Tuns Passage, Blackheath, are kept in an unwholesome and
filthy state from the liquid oozing from a dung-heap, &c., in Mr. Fox's stable-yard. In
one of these houses I reported some months ago a death from scarlet fever.
At Mr. Hopkins's, greengrocer, Blackheath, the privies are full and overflowing into
the cellar, and the whole yard and house is offensive from the same cause. Five children
have been ill in one house, and their illness has been very properly, in my opinion,
attributed to this cause. In the next house a case of typhus fever is now lying.
In Lewisham, water supply is required at Rushey Green, Hanover Street, Loampit
Hill, &c.
Mill Terrace and North Cottages require draining, as at present they assist in contaminating
the water of the Ravensbournc.
The drainage from Arnold's Silk Mill is still most open and offensive.
The drainage of Rushey Green beyond the Black Horse Inn is still unattended to; an
open ditch here is offensive from this cause.
In Sydenham.—I had occasion in my last report to complain of the filthy state of
some houses at Bell Green, since which a most offensive nuisance, affecting the neigh-