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ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
Medical Officer of Health
OF THE
FULHAM DISTRICT,
For the Year 1881.
June 1st, 1882.
To the Fulham District Board of Works.
Gentlemen,—
Last year was a very eventful one in reference to the
sanitary work of your Board. The severe epidemic of smallpox
occupied a great deal of time and consideration. We can
not do otherwise than review the work with satisfaction. Many
difficulties presented themselves, particularly in reference to
dealing with the epidemic. These difficulties were met, to say
the least, in a very satisfactory manner. Your Board was
involved in several costly actions in the Court of Chancery. In
some of these you were the plaintiffs and in some the defendants,
but in all cases the actions were satisfactorily terminated.
A large number of the inhabitants of the district were at one
time greatly incensed against your Board for having erected a
temporary Small-pox Hospital, but I venture to state that there
are very few now who would not own that the course which you
adopted, and to which they offered such strong opposition, was
in the interests of humanity. There can be no doubt that a large
number of lives were saved and a large amount of affliction was
prevented by the action which you took.
The Fulham district comprises an area of 4003 acres and an
estimated population in the middle of last year of 116,000
inhabitants. It is divided for registration purposes into three
sub-districts, namely:—Fulham, which is the parish of Fulham;