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is 66 per cent. higher in the unhealthy, than in the healthy sub-districts; the
proportion of births is 51 per cent. higher in the unhealthy than in the healthy
sub-districts."
The great mortality in the unhealthy districts arises from the large number
of deaths among infants and young children. It therefore appears that excessive
infantile mortality does not tend to lessen the amount of population.* The
further consideration of this important and interesting question I must defer
to another opportunity.
I may here observe, for the information of some persons who may read
this report, that the words epidemic and zymotic, which occur so frequently in
my sanitary reports, are derived from the Greek, the former signifies prevalent
upon the people, the latter apt to ferment it being supposed that such diseases
were produced and propagated by a kind of fermentation. In the weekly
returns of the Registrar General, the following diseases are called epidemic, viz:
small pox, scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, diarrhoea and typhus. These
diseases are always more or less prevalent in the close, overcrowded, and confined
places of large towns; but other diseases sometimes assume an epidemic
form, as cholera, influenza, carbuncle, erysipelas, croup, &c.
The number of cases of fever attended by the Medical Officers of the
Union for the year ending Lady-day, 1855, amounted to 2721; and the whole
number of pauper cases of sickness, which were attended by them during the
same period, amounted to 16,818. This large amount of sickness, a great
proportion of which is from preventible causes, enjoins upon your sanitary
officers the necessity of great exertions to, seek out, and remove all known causes
of disease; and if an uniform system of dealing with nuisances were adopted
in every district, the whole metropolis would be greatly benefited.
The following are some of the principal causes of the ill health and high
rate of mortality in this district:—
1. The want of an efficient sewerage.
2. The escape of deleterious gases from the sewers.†
3. The existence of numerous cesspools and open privies.
4. The want of impervious house drainage. §
5. Putrefying animal and vegetable matter lying on the surface of the
streets, owing to the neglect of the scavengers. ||
6. The long retention of house refuse in uncovered receptacles, in confined
places, and in close proximity to occupied rooms.
* The death of unweaned children is speedily followed by new creations.
† This arises from their imperfect original construction. If the sewers had a
sufficient fall, and were flushed with water, the trapping of the gullies would be
unnecessary.
§ It is probable that more cases of illness, in respectable families, are produced
from defective drainage, than from any other cause.
|| The present mode of cleansing the streets is very faulty. The mud is swept up
to one side of the street, where it is allowed to remain for several hours, to the great
annoyance of the public, who are splashed by horses spattering it around and on the
foot pavement. Before the Scavengers cart it away, a large portion of the more fluid
part has passed down into the sewers, and another large portion has escaped by evaporation,
thus occasioning most obnoxious exhalations.