London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St Giles (Camden) 1860

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]

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interesting facts, that the mortality of St. Giles's was in relative as well as in
absolute excess in the two colder quarters of the year. And it may be observed
that the magnitude of the death.rate of St. Giles's doe3 not become apparent on the
mere returns of the registrars, but only after allowance has been made for our
parishioners dying in hospitals. To such an extent are our poor dependent on the
public charities of other districts. What hospitals they were that afforded relief to
our own parishes and to our neighbours may be learnt from Table II. of the
Appendix.
The following scheme gives a summary of our death.rate in the past four years,
and indicates, as far as this is a test, the sanitary progress made by our district an l
its neighbours. Eighteen.fifty.seven may be considered as representing approximately
the rate of mortality that had prevailed in the average of previous years.

Death.rate per 10,0001 in St. Giles's and neighbouring Districts.

DISTRICTS.1857.1858.1859.1860.
St. Pancras197.0224.9221.4208.7
St. Marylebone217.3224.0225.0227.7
Metropolis221.0234.4227.0224.1
Holborn236.3247.7248.6238.7
Strand239.4226.6262.9231.5
St. Martin243.0218.5246.7228.6
St. Giles's280.0258.2260.1262.4

Chapter III.— Causes of Death in St. Giles's District, in 1860.
Each death of the 1419 that occurred in St. Giles's has been classified according
to the disease and under the proper sex and age at which it occurred. The causes
of death in detail with the ages are given at length in the third appended Table,
where, however, except in the columns of totals, the two sexes are put together.
For present comment, the natural groups of diseases assumed by the Registrar.General,
are, however, more compendious than the individual maladies that have produced
death. These classes of disease may be most usefully studied for our own district
by the side of the returns from the Metropolis as a whole. Taking 1 ÷ 51.1 part of
the total deaths from each cause, occurring in the town, we obtain the number which
should be furnished to the register of 1860 by the population of St. Giles's. The
number of deaths that did actually occur from each cause is placed side by side with
the number so estimated. Thus we see at a glance the nature of the maladies to
which the excessive mortality of St. Giles's is to be ascribed. (Seefollowing Table.)
Taking the causes of death according to the above five classes, let us examine first
the class of Zymotic diseases. St. Giles's has usually been found in very notable excess
in this respect, but it appears that in 1860 it scarcely experienced a greater number
of deaths from these diseases than its quota, and this at a time when the quota itself
was remarkably low. The number, 264, is materially below the zymotic mortality
of any previous year on which report has been made, and it represents a very
considerable fall from the number, 374, of the year 1859. It will been seen from
following the figures at the foot of the Table, compared with those of the earlier year,
that the decline is chiefly in diarrhoea and scarlet fever, herein resembling the decline
of the town at large. It will also be found that measles and whooping-cough,
* In this Table the population for the years 1859 and 1860 have been estimated on the basis of the census
of 1861, and on the rate of increase which has been thereby ascertained. The year 1857 is corrected to the
same duration as other years.