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) 1865

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

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Table: The following table of deaths represent the relative prevalence in sub-districts of the more important members of the zymotic class of diseases. Deaths in hospitals are here included, so far as the place is known from whence the patients were brought, and deaths in the Infants' Home are excluded.

The following table of deaths represent the relative prevalence in sub-districts of the more important members of the zymotic class of diseases. Deaths in hospitals are here included, so far as the place is known from whence the patients were brought, and deaths in the Infants' Home are excluded.

Population 1861.DEATHS IN SUB-DISTRICT FROM
Small-pox.Measles.ScarlatinaDiphtheria.Whooping Cough.Various Fevers.Diarrhœa.
Bloomsbury17392239524917
St. Giles' South1878843141274938
St. Giles' North1720135111243122
Workhouse Inmates & Tramps69500000143

Table: Further detail as to the localization of epidemics appears to be requisite only in the case of fever. Dividing the district into the ten localities that have usually been employed in these reports when accurate consideration of locality was needed, and distinguishing fevers, so far as may be done, into typhus, typhoid, and undescribed fevers, the following figures are obtained:—

Further detail as to the localization of epidemics appears to be requisite only in the case of fever. Dividing the district into the ten localities that have usually been employed in these reports when accurate consideration of locality was needed, and distinguishing fevers, so far as may be done, into typhus, typhoid, and undescribed fevers, the following figures are obtained:—

Locality of Death.Population, 1861.From "typhus.""Typhoid."Undescribed Fevers.
A About Bedford Square3948--1
B „ Russell Square55511-2
C „ Coram Street6104212
D „ Bloomsburv Square525112-
E „ Church Lane46745-3
F „ Dudley Street90171163
G „ Short's Gardens6306112-
H „ Nothern Drury Lane51551641
K „ Southern „50571022
L „ Lincoln's Inn Fields2261--1
Workhouse Inmates and tramps6951211
Unknown-6--

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Herein it will he observed that typhus has prevailed most in the crowded
parts of the district to the south of Holborn. Cases came in considerable
numbers from the common lodging houses of Charles Street and other streets
in this neighbourhood. Typhoid appears to have prevailed most in the Dudley
Street locality, and next in the streets at the north of Drury Lane.
Section V.—On the Uncertified Deaths of 1865.
The deaths which, in 1865, were registered without certificates of their
cause from a medical practitioner or coroner, numbered twelve only.
The attention that has been drawn in these reports, and elsewhere, to the
abuses likely to spring from the want of proper medical certificates of cause in
every case of death, appears to have had effect. When first pointed out, 40
or 50 deaths yearly were registered without certificate of their cause. In
the past three years, the uncertified deaths have numbered 26, 15, and 12
respectively, showing a considerable and progressive improvement of practice.
Of the twelve uncertified deaths, six were in Bloomsbury sub-district, five
in St. Giles Scuth, and only one in St Giles North. It is worthy the consideration
of the Registrars of the two former sub-districts, whether they cannot
get in practice the small degree of omission that is found in the practice of
their colleague in St. Giles North. Half of the twelve deaths were in children
under one year of age.