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 1869
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]
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18
83 per cent of the deaths from Epidemic diseases, occurred
amongst the labouring classes. This amount of fatality
from disease is very greatly in excess of what is attributable
to their superiority of numbers.
Epidemic Diseases—Their prevalence and fatality.—
The following table shows the deaths which have resulted from the 7 principal Epidemic diseases during the past and ten preceding years, and the relation which they bore to the deaths from all causes.
| YEARS. | Small Pox. | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Diphtheria. | Whooping Cough. | Cholera. | Diarrhœa. | Fever— Typhus and Typhoid. | Total Deaths from Epidemics. | Total Deaths from all causes. | Percentage of deaths from Epidemics to deaths from ail causes. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1859 | 2 | 7 | 43 | 3 | 2 | ... | 3 | 0 | 60 | 311 | 19.2 |
| 1860 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 4 | ... | 4 | 4 | 22 | 308 | 7.1 |
| 1861 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 4 | ... | 8 | 3 | 30 | 246 | 12.1 |
| 1862 | 0 | 28 | 2 | 5 | 11 | ... | 5 | 11 | 62 | 273 | 22.7 |
| 1863 | 8 | 2 | 23 | 1 | 9 | ... | 6 | 13 | 62 | 300 | 20.6 |
| 1864 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | ... | 8 | 13 | 43 | 311 | 13.8 |
| 1865 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | ... | 19 | 18 | 54 | 338 | 15.9 |
| 1866 | 3 | 23 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 5 | 73 | 351 | 20.7 |
| 1867 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 33 | 332 | 9.9 |
| 1868 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 20 | ... | 22 | 7 | 64 | 394 | 16.2 |
| 1869 | 0 | 23 | 36 | 0 | 7 | ... | 23 | 5 | 94 | 429 | 21.9 |
The mortality from these diseases is seen to be exceptionally
great, amounting to no less than 94, the average
of the preceding ten years having been 50. The excess
was partly due to an Epidemic of Measles of severe type
which occurred during the first three months, but principally
to severe and very extensive Epidemics of Scarlatina
and of Diarrhoea which prevailed during the latter seven
months of the year. Small-pox, it is gratifying to observe,
was almost entirely absent from the Sub-district. No death
occurred from this disease, and but a single isolated case
is recorded as having taken place amongst the parochial
poor during the year.