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
St Giles (Camden) 1863
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]
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Here will be seen to what a great degree the variations in the total mortality
are produced by the deaths of infants. While Russell Square district
lost only 15 children under 5 years, or 27 per 10,000 of its residents; the
parts about Dudley Street and Short's Gardens experienced deaths among
children to the extent of 172 and 178 per 10,000 of their population respectively.
Doubtless there are fewer infants among the people of comfortably
established position in the one neighbourhood, than swarm in the poor
courts and alleys of the other district. But this consideration explains but a
very small part of the prodigious disproportion between the localities at the
top and at the bottom of this list.
The Ten Localities—their Order of Mortality from Zymotic Diseases,
| Order of Sequence, 1863. | Locality of | Deaths from Miasmatic Diseases in 1863* | Miasmatic mortality per 10,000. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All miasmatic diseases. | Small-pox. | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Diphtheritis. | Whooping Cough. | Continued fevers, of which ( ) | registered as "typhus." | Diarrhœa. | Other miasmatic ( diseases. | |||
| Best 1st. | B. Russell-square | 10 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | - | 3 | 18 | |
| 2nd. | A. Bedford-square | 17 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | (1) | 2 | 1 | 43 |
| 3-4 | L. Lincoln's Inn-fields | 12 | 2 | — | 3 | 4 | — | 1 | (-) | 1 | 1 | 53 |
| K. Southern Drury-la. | 28 | 4 | 2 | 5 | — | 5 | 6 | (1) | 5 | 1 | 55 | |
| 5th | E. Church-lane | 30 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | (3) | 7 | 1 | 64 |
| 6-7 | D. Bloomsbury-square | 37 | 1 | 3 | 15 | — | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 70 | |
| F. Dudley-street | 63 | 14 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 1 | 70 | |||
| 8 th. | C. Coram-street | 48 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 78 | |
| Worst 9-10 | H. Northern Drury-la. | 48 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | (2) | 8 | — | 93 |
| G. Short's-gardens | 59 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 11 | (5) | 13 | 2 | 94 | |
| Workhouse Inmates | 8 | - | — | 1 | — | 1 | 2 | (2) | 2 | 2 | - | |
| Whole District | 360 | 57 | 32 | 78 | 13 | 42 | 52 | (21) | 59 | 27 | 66 | |
* The totals may not always be found to correspond exactly with those in Table III. of the Appendix.
This would arise from the different ways in which a complicated disease may be recorded on two occasions.
In the column of "fevers," puerperal fever is here included. With scarlatina, quinsy.
Here again Russell Square district stands in the highest position, having
about a fifth part of the zymotic mortality for its population that is observed
in the worst parts of St. Giles'. But it is not necessary to leave the Parish
of Bloomsbury for a contrast with the Russell Square district. The Coram
Street locality continued in 1863 the very high rate of death from these
diseases that it had in 1862: every important disorder of the zymotic group
giving several deaths in that unfortunate district, and scarcely any being unrepresented
on its death-rolls. It will be seen that small-pox found its largest
number of victims in those districts whose general zymotic mortality was
greatest, a circumstance that would seem to show that vaccination is not much
more neglected in one part of St. Giles' than in another. Fevers obtained
their maximum prevalence in Dudley Street and Short's Gardens district,
where the most deaths from typhus proper were also recorded. Bloomsbury
Square district holds a bad position by reason of the many deaths from
scarlatina that occurred there.