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

Wandsworth 1859

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]

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Table: The following table gives the deaths from each class of disease and other causes, together with the sex, age, and social positions of the deceased

The following table gives the deaths from each class of disease and other causes, together with the sex, age, and social positions of the deceased

PUTNEY AND ROEHAMPTONSEXAGESOCIAL POSITION
MalesFemalesTotalUnder 1 vearFrom 1 to 5 yearsFrom 5 to 10 yearsUnder 20 years, including all under 10 yearsAt 20, and under 40 years of ageAt 40, and under 60 years of ageAt 60, and uuder 80 years of age80 years and upwardsNobility and GentryProfessional Class, Merchants, Bankers, &c.Middle and Trading Class, Shopmen, Clerks &c.Industrial and Labouring Clares
Population in 1851, 5,280 Area in Acres 2,176
DISEASES And other causes of death.
1. Small Pox........................••....
2. Measles 4591629..........••18
3. Scarlatina and Malingnant Diseases of the Throat..22....12..........1..1
4. Hooping Cough13413..4..........••31
5. Diarrhoea and Dysentery2355................••..5
6. Cholera........................••....
7. Fever516..235....1..1••14
8. Erysipelas........................••....
Puerperal Fever..............................
10. Lung Diseases, except Phthisis6915121412621••86
11. Phthisis5510......2521......55.
12. Hydrocephalus, Atrophy, Scrofula, & Convulsions of Children161329179229..........1622
13. Other Diseases16183441..733165451114
14. Violence, Privation, and Premature Birth4154....4..1....1..4
Total5960119332397198247683570

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Of the 1,19 deaths recorded iu this table, 2G were the result of the six
principal Zymotic diseases, which is a somewhat larger proportion than was
exhibited in 1858, the number being in the last named year, 21. In 1858,
however, not one fatal case of measles was registered, and but two of fever,
but in the past year there took place as many as 9 deaths from the one and
6 from the other. Of fatal cases of lung disease, inclusive of 10 deaths
from Phthisis, there occurred 25, which it is pleasing to observe is 6 less
than appeared in a similar table in my last annual report.
Infant Mortality,
There is no very marked difference between the records of the two years
of 1858 and 1859, in respect to the fatality attending the group of noncontagious
diseases peculiar to childhood (No. 12 in the table), 29 being
the number registered in the past year against 25 in the preceding one. If
there be added to this the number of children who succumbed between the
period of birth and 10 years of age, to epidemic and other diseases not included
in the group just referred to, it gives the large number of 56, or
about one-half of the total number dying of disease at all ages ! from which
it may be inferred that the mothers of a rapidly increasing industrial population
still continue to be regardless, in a great number of instances, of the
deplorable consequences resulting from the neglect of home duties and