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
Hackney 1870
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]
This page requires JavaScript
9
1844, and 1846. There were 392 in number, or only 15.9 per
cent., against the average of 16.3. The deaths from the other
groups of diseases differed so little in number from those of
former years, as not to require any special comment, except that
deaths from violence, whether accidental or otherwise, were
decidedly below the average.
As regards the mortality from epidemic diseases, there is no
doubt that we shall have a larger proportion registered in this
district now, in consequence of the opening of the Small Pox
and Fever Hospital, as many deaths from these causes have
not hitherto been registered here, but in Islington. At the same
time, allowance has been made for deaths in hospitals, in making
the corrections for calculating the death rate for the district, so
that they have not escaped notice altogether.
1859-70—Deaths from Seven Epidemic Diseases. Hackney.
| 1859 | 1860 | 1861 | 1862 | 1863 | 1864 | 1865 | 1866 | 1867 | 1868 | 1869 | 1870 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50°7 | 47°0 | 49°4 | 49°5 | 50°3 | 48°o | 50°3 | 49°8 | 48°6 | 51°6 | 49°5 | 48°7 | |
| Small Pox | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 41 | 12 | 6 | 31 | 27 | 6 | 6 | 16 |
| Measles | 10 | 43 | 36 | 32 | 37 | 79 | 22 | 26 | 15 | 35 | 64 | 40 |
| Scarlet Fever | 82 | 64 | 58 | 83 | 125 | 64 | 98 | 68 | 49 | 49 | 247 | 181 |
| Diphtheria | 27 | 11 | 24 | 27 | 34 | 15 | 22 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 16 | 9 |
| Whooping Cough Fever | 36 | 51 | 62 | 56 | 28 | 48 | 56 | 89 | 72 | 44 | 102 | 39 |
| 55 | 38 | 55 | 89 | 49 | 77 | 75 | 76 | 63 | 54 | 60 | 51 | |
| Diarrhœa | 87 | 19 | 55 | 25 | 60 | 71 | 125 | 162 | 75 | 120 | 97 | 115 |
| Totals | 352 | 228 | 291 | 314 | 375 | 366 | 404 | 464 | 317 | 320 | 592 | 451 |
The mortality from small pox, 16, was not large, although in
excess of that registered in most of the years; that of measles
was below an average, having been 40 against 64 in the preceding
year; scarlet fever prevailed to a very unusual extent,
especially when we consider its great prevalence in 1869. There
seems to have been some unknown atmospheric cause in action
to have produced the singular prevalence of epidemic diseases