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

View report page

St Giles (Camden) 1864

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

This page requires JavaScript

6
others has suffered under the influence of several consecutive seasons of
unhealthiness, but that there are districts, formerly better off than St. Giles',
which have not only risen in their mortality at our own rate, but have
(probably from the operation of some other cause than unhealthy season)
still further deteriorated in their standard of health so as now to be equal to
St. Giles' in their annual rate of death.

Death-rate per 10,000* in St. Giles's and neighbouring Districts.

Districts.1857.1858.1859.1860.1861.1862.1863.1864.
St. Pancras197.0224.9221.4208.7228.3215.5225.6247.2
St. Marylebone217.3224.0225.0227.7242.5237.1245.3250.4
Metropolis221.0234.4227.0224.1231.8234.1244.4260.4
Holborn236.3247.7248.6238.7270.4285.5279.3312.8
Strand239.4226.6262.9231.5233.7254.6261.0300.8
St. Martin243.0218.5246.7228.6233.7238.0260.9257.4
St. Giles280.0258.2260.1262.4270.3289.0284.5310.0

* Correction is here made for the longer duration of the registration years 1857 & 1863.
Also for all deaths in hospitals and outlying Workhouses.
Of the 1675 deaths in St. Giles', 849 were in males and 826 in females.
The excess of males is somewhat smaller than is usually observed, and if the
deaths in hospitals (to which males get taken more than females, from their
greater liability to accident) be excluded from consideration, the deaths of each
sex were as nearly as possible equal, being 800 males and 801 females.
The mean duration of life in persons dying in St. Giles' in 1864, was 30
years and one month; and of those who had passed the period of infancy, and
died after reaching the age of two years, the age at death averaged 42 years
and nine months. Comparing these ages with those recorded in former reports,
they are seen to be higher by one or two years, a fact which is accounted for
by an unusual number of old people having died in 1864. One woman is
stated to have died at the age of 102 years.
section iii.—On the Causes of Death in St. Giles's District in 1864.
The causes of death in St. Giles' have been examined side by side with
the causes in London for each of the four quarters of 1864, and for the whole
year. In this way the influence of special season is partly eliminated, and the
results of the comparison, by showing in what respects St. Giles' differs from
other parts of the metropolis, afford suggestions of practical value.
One 54.6th part of the mortality of London has been taken in the following
table (and in appendix IV. where the quarters are examined separately) as the
quota of deaths that St. Giles' would furnish if the same rate of death prevailed
in this district as in the whole town; as this is the fraction which our population
constitutes of the population (calculated for the middle of 1864) of
London. Some classes of disease are in excess, some are below the quota thus
estimated.
From the table it will again be seen how much St. Giles' district exceeds
in its gross mortality the number that its population should give to the death
rolls of London. In 1864, its quota of deaths was 1423.5, and its actual
number was 1675. There was, therefore, an excess of 251.5 deaths, or 117
deaths occurred for every hundred that occurred in an equal population taken
out of the average of London.