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
Whitechapel 1886
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel]
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10
The observations I have made in former reports, regarding
those classes of diseases in which the District deaths are in excess
of the Metropolitan, will apply exactly to the present year, indicating
the presence of the same conditions in the causation of
similar results.
In the subjoined Table will be seen, separately contrasted, the zymotic diseases, showing the percentage of each to total deaths :
| Diseases. | London. | Whitechapel. |
|---|---|---|
| Small-Pox | 0.006 | 0.0 |
| Measles | 2.526 | 2.832 |
| Scarlet Fever | 0.835 | 1.354 |
| Typhus | 0.015 | 0.061 |
| Relapsing Fever | 0.0001 | 0.0 |
| Influenza | 0.0006 | 0.0 |
| Whooping-Cough | 3.446 | 2.770 |
| Diphtheria | 1.028 | 0.980 |
| Simple Fever | 0.085 | 0.061 |
| Enteric Fever | 0.752 | 0.677 |
| Simple Cholera | 0.166 | 0.061 |
| Diarrhoea | 4.801 | 4.002 |
| Remittent Fever | 0.0002 | 0.0 |
| Other Zymotic Diseases | 1.579 | 1.662 |
It has hitherto only been the custom in this District to disinfect
bedding, rooms, &c., where cases of small-pox, scarlet-fever,
typhus, or enteric fever, and such-like diseases have occurred, but,
in view of the fact that measles and whooping-cough add so
largely to our mortality returns, I am not certain that wisdom
would not be exercised by carrying out the same procedure in these
diseases. I have in fact, during the year, placed deaths from
measles upon the list when other young children are found to be
resident where deaths take place from that disease.
The absence of small-pox from the list of deaths will be
noticed with satisfaction, and I have again to mention the highly
gratifying position which the District vaccination statistics occupy
in the last Local Government Report. The Table I append
(Table L, page 32), which shows the result of Mr. Sherman's work
in this respect, bears out the commendation conveycd in the
report to which 1 have adverted. This seems to be a suitable