London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Whitechapel 1863
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel]
This page requires JavaScript
Continued to previous page..
| Date 1863. | Deaths from Small pox in entire District. | Pauper cases of Small-pox. | Deaths from ScaTlet fever in entire District. | Pauper cases of Scarlet-fever. | Total deaths from all causes in entire District. | Date 1863. | Deaths from Small pox in entire District. | Pauper cases of Small-pox. | Deaths from Scarlet lever in entire District. | Pauper cases of Scarlet-fever. | Total deaths from all causes in entire District. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 43 | Aug. 15 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 17 | 42 |
| „ 11 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 50 | „ 22 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 65 |
| „ 18 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 15 | 44 | „ 29 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 45 |
| Sep. 5 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 45 | ||||||
| „ 25 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 18 | 66 | ||||||
| „ 12 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 57 | ||||||
| Aug. 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 24 | 55 | ||||||
| „ 19 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 65 | ||||||
| „ 8 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 42 | ||||||
| „ 26 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 52 |
There are no available means of obtaining a return of diseases which
occur in the practice of private Medical Practitioners, but an approximation to
the number of cases of Small-pox may be arrived at by multiplying the deaths
from this disease by the rate of its mortality which is about 1 in 8. The cases of
this disease have therefore been about 96. Typhus Fever has been epidemic in
this District since September 1861, when 27 deaths from it were registered in
the quarter ending the following Christmas. In the succeeding quarter the
deaths were 53. In the quarters ending June, September and December, 1862,
March, June and September, 1863, the deaths were respectively 84, 62, 39, 28,
and 39. Scarlet Fever has been epidemic since June, 1862, and Small-pox since
December, 1862. The mortality from Fever having gradually declined from 84 in
the quarter ending June 1862 to 28 in the quarter ending the following June there
was reason to hope that the epidemic was about to subside; but as the mortality
has again increased during the present quarter our hopes may not be realized.
If the coming winter be severe, and the people unemployed, we may anticipate a
considerable increase in the mortality from this disease. Overcrowding, the want
of ventilation, and insufficient food and clothing predispose persons to attacks of
Typhus Fever. From the records of the Fever Hospital recently published, it
appears that, from January 1863, to the middle of October, the City of London
sent 34 patients to the Fever Hospital, Bethnal Green sent 32, Limehouse 24,
Stepney 41, St. George's East 103, while during the same period not one was
sent from Whitechapel. In drawing comparisons therefore between Whitechapel
and the neighbouring districts, the fact of the adjoining districts sending so
many patients to the Fever Hospital must be borne in mind.
The mortality of children under 5 years of age is 324, or 47.6 per cent.
of the total mortality of the District. In the Artillery Sub-district the proportion
of deaths of children under 5 years to the total deaths is 70 per cent.; in the
Spitalfields Sub-district it is 68.4, and in the Goodman's-fields Sub-district, it is
61.7 per cent. The deaths of persons above 80 years of age are 13; one of these
had reached the advanced age of 89 years. Five deaths were uncertified by any
Medical Practitioner.