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
Kensington 1856
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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10
I have introduced into this Table the mortality in the Workhouse
and in the Cancer and Consumption Hospitals. The results from the
latter Hospital are obtained from the annual returns made by the
committee, and from those of the Registrar-GeneraL
The mortality in the Consumption Hospital appears to be about 1
in every 7 or 8 admitted into the institution.
Table C. shews the mortality from all causes, with the ages at
death. The first point which will doubtless attract your attention, is
the immense mortality from phthisis—296, and from bronchitis and
pneumonia—94 and 57; but we must bear in mind that a large proportion
of this mortality occurred in the Consumption Hospital.
I have compared, with that ot surrounding parishes, our mortality from the second class of diseases, termed zymotic, as without doubt the sanitary condition of a district is to be estimated more accurately by the mortality from zymotic diseases than by the general death rate.
| Population. | Small Pox. | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Hooping Cough. | Diarrhæa. | Typhus Fever. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington | 44,053 | 13 | 30 | 20 | 19 | 62 | 15 |
| Paddington | 46,305 | 4 | 51 | 41 | 55 | 51 | 35 |
| Chelsea | 56,538 | 5 | 36 | 30 | 36 | 59 | 54 |
| St. George's, Hanover-square | 73,230 | 3 | 47 | 30 | 44 | 49 | 65 |
Our death rate from small-pox has been much higher than the surrounding
parishes; from measles and diarrhoea about the same; and
from typhus, scarlatina, and hooping cough, much lower:
I have prepared a Table which will give you a correct account
of the mortality from Cholera in 1854, compared with the epidemic
of 1849.
The mortality of this disease is also compared with the general
mortality, for 1856.
The accompanying map* of the whole parish will shew you
those spots visited by this frightful scourge in 1849 and 1854;
and I have been at some considerable trouble to insert as many cases
as I could collect from the epidemic of 1832. This map will shew
you the tendency of this disease to re-visit the same spots at each succeeding
outbreak; and, although it would be foreign to the subject
to enter into any speculations with regard to the mode of its propagation,
it is right to point out to you that it does to a great
extent depend on certain local and removable causes, at the head of
which stand overcrowding, the effluvia from noisome trades, and bad
drainage.
* This map has not been lithographed.