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7
SOME NOTES ON THE HEALTH OF EALING OVER
THE PAST 100 YEARS
Ealing in 1851, in its pleasant situation and equable climate, was
noted for its health giving qualities, but was still a tiny village,
far overshadowed by its growing neighbour, Acton. By this date
Acton had grown into a thriving community of 4,700 people. Ealing
was still too small to afford the services of a Medical Officer of Health,
and this was not to be achieved until 1874.
We may compare the Middlesex of 1851 with the Ealing of
to-day. Middlesex, outside London, comprised the districts of
Staines, Uxbridge, Brentford, Hendon, Barnet and Edmonton,
with a total population of 150,606. Ealing's population is now
188,800.
Victorian England was flourishing and the birth rate was high—
30 per thousand. The effects of poverty, malnutrition and ignorance
however took their toll so that 1 in 7 of the children born died
before they reached their first birthday (an infantile mortality
rate of 145 per 1,000).
The asiatic cholera had reached England 15 years previously
and periodic flare-ups still occurred to terrorise the people. Cholera
eventually died out in this country some 90 years ago but out of
evil came good, for the fear of cholera helped speed long overdue
sanitary reforms.

No death from any of these diseases was recorded in 1950.
By 1890 Ealing still remained a village, but one that was
growing steadily and now had 27,000 inhabitants. The ladies must
have had a "thin time," for the census showed a surplus of 5,000.
The public health reports have a curiously up to the minute
ring with stories of epidemics of influenza and measles—which last
alone led to 38 deaths.