View report page

7
In a letter addressed to the Editor of the Journal of Public Health, and
published in the number for July, 1848, I drew public attention to this important
subject, and urged the desirability of furnishing the Eegistrar-General
with a weekly return of the cases of sickness occurring in the metropolis, so
that he might be able to publish it with the weekly returns of death. Such a
publication would acquaint the public authorities and their officers with the
actual state of the health of the people. If such returns had been published,
the numerous cases of relapsing fever, a disease fatal in the proportion only
of about 5 per cent, of persons attacked would have called, at an early period,
the attention of the public to the subj ect, whereas public attention was only
drawn to the prevalence of this disease by the publication in the Lancet of the
return of oases admitted into the Fever Hospital. If the returns of sickness
furnished to the Guardians by the medical officers of the Unions were utilized
by the Medical Officers of Health, and presented to their respective Boards at
their weekly or fortnightly Meetings, such returns would be published in the
local journals, and so the public generally would be informed of the health of
each District.
Meteorology op Greenwich.
The returns of the Eegistrar-General show that the rain-fall in the
Metropolis during the Quarter has been 5.23 inches. During the corresponding
Quarter of last year the rain-fall was 4.40 inches. The mean
temperature of the air was 01.5°. In the corresponding Quarter of last year
the mean temperature was G3.9". The hottest days during the Quarter were
Sunday, July 18th, Thursday, July 22nd, and Saturday, August 28th, when
the thermometer in the shade indicated respectively 88.8°, 90.9°, and 89.0°.

The following return shows the amount of work done by the Sanitary
Inspectors during the Quarter:—
Number of inspections of houses, as shown in the official returns 3702