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23
Gentlemen,
The number of deaths registered in the district during the past five weeks amounts
to fifty-two. This number is above the average number for the month.
The sudden alternations of temperature have told with fatal effect upon the young
and aged.
Thus, of the above number, twenty-one have been those of children under 5 years
of age, whilst thirteen have been amongst those whose ages ranged from GO to 95
years.
Six deaths have been occasioned by zymotic disease, namely—
28th Dec. Scarlet fever, Eliot Place, Blackheath.
6th Jan. Hooping cough, King Street, Blackheath.
25th Dec. Fever, Hexamer Place, Lewisham.
1st Jan. Hooping cough, Loampit Dale, Lewisham.
2nd Jan Croup, Woodlands, Lewisham.
7th Jan. Scarlet fever, Peak Hill, Lewisham.
A child died in King Street, Lewisham, from injuries received from his clothes
catching fire.
A servant in Lower Sydenham was burnt to death, from her clothes having accidentally
caught fire.
Influenza and other catarrhal affections, attended with great depression of the circulation
and nervous system, have been very prevalent.
Scarlatina has also been prevalent.
Since my last report, another severe case of typhoid fever, arising from the dangerous
non-sanitary state of a house in Ravensbourne Park, has occurred, and the young man
is still in considerable danger.
I wish to call your attention to the unsatisfactory state of the drainage of Ravensbourne
Park. The drains from the house in which so much sickness has arisen (as
mentioned to you in my last report), have been trapped, and a ventilating shaft constructed
(at the expense of the tenant) ; but the outlet of the drain is several feet below
the sewer into which it discharges, and which, moreover, is of a smaller calibre, and
therefore an elongated cesspool remains, which must eventually be blocked up.
The water supplied from the pump-well to this house, contains 111.48 grains of
total impurity, of which 19.6 are organic, no doubt derived from the surface drainage of
the meadow in which it is situated.
The muddy state of the roads and footpaths is much complained of in Sydenham, and
will not be improved unless the road scrapings arc more frequently removed. They lie
about for a considerable time, and have not only the effect of spoiling the roads, thus
being a source of expense, but they are from their wetness a source of sickness. A mud
cart should be supplied by the contractors.
The offensive effluvium from the large air shafts from the sewer near the church, in
Dartmouth Park, is much complained of.
The swampy state of Willow Road, Sydenham, is also complained of, and must be a
source of sickness.
Meteorological tables and tables of mortality are appended as usual.