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 1865
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]
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deaths resulted from violence, eight of which were accidental
and one suicidal. Sixteen deaths occurred in which the cause
was not certified by any qualified medical practitioner; so
many instances, therefore, in which death may have resulted
from other than natural causes. As the essential function of
the Coroners' Court is the determination of the cause of death,
the necessity for medical testimony at all such enquiries
cannot be too strongly insisted on. The cause of death is
on these occasions often assumed on conjecture, and to my
own knowledge erroneously in two instances last year;
and if they represent, as I believe they do, the manner in
which Coroners' inquests are conducted generally throughout
the country, it becomes apparent to what an extent the
Registrar-General's Returns, upon which are based the
Tables of Life Insurance, &c., are vitiated, as well as to
what an extent the means of protecting society from secret
crime are defective. In every interest of society the cause
of death should be a fact, as far as human knowledge can
make it so.
The deaths which have resulted from the principal epidemic diseases during the past and nine preceding years, and the relation which they bore to the deaths from all causes, are shewn in the following table: —
| YEARS. | Small Pox | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Diphtheria. | Whooping Cough. | Diarrhœa. | Fever— Typhus and Typhoid. | Total Deaths from Epidemics. | Total Deaths from all causes. | Percentage of deaths from Epidemics to deaths from all cases. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PREVALENCE AND FATALITY OF EPIDEMIC DISEASES.