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
St Pancras 1856
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, Metropolitan Borough]
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The following table shows the number of deaths in the several sub-districts of St. Pancras, and in two workhouses, from six epidemic diseases and from all causes during the quarter ending June 28th, 1856:—
| DISTRICTS. | Low Fevers. | Small Pox. | Scarlet Fever. | Measles and Hooping Cough. | Diarrhœa | Other Causes. | Total Numbers from all Causes. | Corrected Totals. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regent's Park | 9 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 128 | 146 | 146 |
| Tottenham Court | 5 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 117 | 142 | 130 |
| Gray's Inn Road | 11 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 97 | 123 | 113 |
| Somers Town | 9 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 140 | 163 | 163 |
| Camden Town | 5 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 80 | 95 | 95 |
| Kentish Town | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 105 | 121 | 121 |
| Strand Workhouse | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 39 | 39 |
| St. Pancras Workhouse | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 91 | 96 | 96 |
| Totals | 47 | 3 | 16 | 54 | 11 | 794 | 925 | 906 |
From Tottenham Court District, in the last column, 12 cases have been deducted.
for deaths in University College Hospital of people from other districts,
which gives 130 deaths for this district. For a similar reason ten have been
deducted from the deaths in Gray's Inn district, giving 113 deaths. Three have
been added to the total number for persons who died in the London Fever Hospital,
whose previous residences are not known. The table includes all the
deaths that occurred in the London Fever Hospital, the Middlesex and St.
Mary's Hospitals, of persons who resided in this parish immediately before
entering the hospitals.
During the quarter ending June 28th, the number of deaths in St. Pancras
was 925; the total number of deaths throughout the metropolis during the same
time was 14,069. The proportion which the population of this parish bears to
that of the whole metropolis is about as 1 to 14. So that the mortality has not
been so high in St. Pancras during the spring quarter as that of all London.
I will now compare the mortality of the several portions of the parish. It
will be found by making the necessary calculations* that in Tottenham Court
and Somers Town a considerably larger proportion of the population, in Regent's
Park and Gray's Inn Road a somewhat smaller, and in Kentish Town a much
smaller proportion, have died than in the parish taken as a whole.
* In making these calculations, I have omitted altogether the deaths in Workhouses, and have included
only so many deaths in Hospitals as really belonged to the Parish, assigning each death to the district from
which the person came. I have estimated the population in the method explained in my first Report.