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REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OF SAINT PANCRAS, MIDDLESEX,
DURING FEBRUARY, 1858,
by
THOMAS HILLIER, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health for the Parish of Saint Pancras.
March 9th, 1858.]
[No. 23.
TO THE SANITARY COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
During the month of February there were registered in this Parish
no fewer than 440 deaths, which is a mortality of 110 per week. The average
of corresponding periods in ten previous years raised for an increased population
only amounts to 367; so that the present return exhibits a mortality nearly 20
per cent, above the average. The number of deaths in February, 1857, was only
355. It is the highest number of deaths that I have ever had to record in
a Monthly Report.
It becomes then important carefully to analyse the mortality, and determine to
what causes the increase can be referred. Is the excess peculiar to St. Pancras,
or is it shared by other parts of the metropolis ? The mortality of all London
has been high during the late month, but not above the average of ten years.
In the whole of the northern division of the metropolis (which includes
Marylebone, Hampstead, Pancras, Islington, and Hackney) the mortality has
been much above the average; in the western a little above, whilst in the three
other divisions it has been considerably below the average. What diseases have
been unusually fatal, and at what ages has the excess of deaths occurred ? As
compared with last year, Scarlet Fever has been very fatal, causing 21 deaths
instead of 4; Hooping Cough also, giving 20 deaths instead of 7; and Measles, 22
instead of 15. Six deaths are registered as having been due to Diphtherite, a
disease to which I referred last month. The subjects of this disease were 5 of
them infants, and one aged 17 years, who was carried off by it in 36 hours.
I am keeping a record of these cases, and inquiring into the particulars concerning
them, in order that I may learn what conditions especially favour the
disease. The larger number of cases have been in Somers Town and its neighbourhood.
The disease is believed to be infectious; those attacked with it
should therefore be as much as possible isolated. It is essentially a disease of
a low type, in which the patient requires much nourishment and stimulants;
it is rendered more virulent by want of ventilation, damp, and defective
drainage. Scarlet Fever is at the present time very prevalent in some parts of
the Parish; this is a disease propagated almost solely by infection, and if more
care were used to keep the healthy (especially children) from the sick, its
extention might be very much checked.
Tubercular disease has not been more fatal than it was in February, 1857, nor
have diseases of the nervous system. Diseases of the heart and blood vessels
have been slightly more fatal. Bronchitis and pneumonia have been fatal to 76
and 34 persons severally, to be compared with 70 and 15 last year. There have