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
Shoreditch 1902
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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condition of the houses, and the result of the illness. In Table VIII. (see Appendix)
are shown the number of cases occurring, and the removals to hospital effected from
day to day. Upon these tables my remarks are mainly based.
The cases certified as small-pox, but subsequently found not to be of that;
disease, numbered 22, or slightly more than five per cint. of the certificates received.
The sufferers practically all belonged to the wage-earning class. Their calling?
and occupations may be roughly classified as follows: School children, 70; housewives,
66; wearing apparel and bootmaking, 23; carmen and stablemen, 14,
labourers, 13; furniture making, 10; building trade, carpenters and house painters, 5;
printing and stationery, 4; clerks, 3; domestic servants, 2; rope making, 3; laundrywork,
3; waitresses, 3; warehousemen, 3; theatrical, 2; apprentices, 2; operative
bakers, 2; publicans and potmen, 3; hawkers, 5; cardboard box making, 5; engine
driving 4; leather work, other than boot making, 3; provision trade, 4; feather trade,
2; various miscellaneous occupations, 35; casual employment, 3; unemployed, 19;
inmates of workhouses, 34; and occupation not stated, including infants and young
children not attending school, 68.
Including the cases in the Holborn Workhouse and the Shoreditch Workhouse
and Infirmary, which are dealt with more particularly later in this report, tha total
number of small-pox cases in Shoreditch during the year was 410.
Including the cases from the beginning of the outbreak in September last year
the total number was 429.
The distribution of the cases, and deaths amongst males and females in the Registration Sub-Districts during the year 1902, is shown in the subjoined Table :
| Registration Sub-Districts. | Cases. | Deaths. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male. | Female. | Total. | Male. | Female. | Total. | |
| Shoreditch South | 16 | 9 | 25 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Hoxton New Town | 105 | 100 | 205 | 24 | 18 | 42 |
| Hoxton Old Town | 31 | 32 | 63 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Haggerston | 50 | 67 | 117 | 11 | 14 | 25 |
| Total | 202 | 208 | 410 | 41 | 37 | 78 |
Shoreditch suffered from small-pox at the rate of 34.7 cases per 10,000 inhabitants
during the year. The attack-rate was 15.7 per 10,000 in Shoreditch South, 69.2 in
Hoxton New Town, in which sub-district the Holborn Union Workhouse is situate, 23.9
in Hoxton Old Town and 25.4 in Haggerston. The death-rates were: For the whole
Borough, 0.66 per 1,000 inhabitants; for Shoreditch South, 0.31; Hoxton New Town,
1.41; Hoxton Old Town, 0.22; and for Haggerston, 0.54. Excluding the population
and deaths of inmates of the Holborn Workhouse, tha death-rats for Hoxton New
Town was 1.3 per 1,000 inhabitants.