View report page

14
these five deaths have taken place from epidemic disease in the undermentioned
lot ties . 17th Nov. Diptheria, Granville Park, Blackheath.
23rd Oct. Malignant Sore Throat, Upper Sydenham.
1st Nov. Typhoid fever, Perry Hill, Sydenham.
2nd „ Measles, Russell Street, Sydenham.
12th „ Measles, Upper Sydenham.
Four deaths have taken place from consumption of the lungs, and three from inflammatory
affections of the lungs.
Smallpox is still prevalent in some parts of the district, namely, at Blackheath,
and at West Kent Park, Sydenham, consequently it has been deemed requisite in
several instances to apply to the magistrates for power to compel the owners to put
their houses in a proper sanitary condition, such as would tend to prevent the spread of
disease.
Measles has also been epidemic and two deaths have been registered from this cause.
At the Police Station, Sydenham, four cases of measles have occurred. Cases of
typhoid fever and diarrhoea have also occurred. A mild form of scarlntina has attacked
persons in several parts of the district. Epidemic catarrh or influenza is also very
prevalent.
The opthalmia endemic at the North Surrey Schools has considerably declined in
intensity, and the inmates of the establishment may be pronounced in a very healthy
condition.
The largely increasing prevalence of typhus fever in the Metropolis, has been under
consideration at a meeting of the Association of Medical Officers of Health, when it was
determined to send the circular appended to this report, for the consideration of tho
local authorities in the several metropolitan districts, with a view to the adoption of
such measures as may prevent or check the spread of the disease in the coming
winter.
"Metropolitan Association of Mcdical Officers of Health. Session 1863-4. Memorandum
concerning the present prevalence of Typhus Fever in London.
November 21st, 1863.
1. Epidcmic typhus, beginning in London at the end of 1861, has of late experienced
a very considerable increase. The admissions for typhus into the London Fever Hospital,
which were 66 in August, rose to 97 in September, to 235 in October, and have now
reached above 200 in the first three weeks of November. As this disease usually increases
as the weather becomes colder, reaching its greatest prevalence in the spring, this
rapid and early rise in the number of typhus cases appears to forebode a considerable
epidemic in the coming winter.
2. The disease appears to have experienced increase very universally throughout
London, but chiefly in the poor and thickly populated districts of the East and South.
3. The Loudon Fever Ilofepital is able to admit about 250 cases a month, and the
projected increase in its accommodation will permit of its receiving about 330 cases a
month. It may safely be asserted that even this latter extent of accommodation will
not suffice for all the cases of typhus that will arise in London.
4. The best ascertained cause of typhus fever is the over-crowding of dirty and halfstarved
people in small ill-ventilated rooms. This is positively the condition under
which the fever spreads, when once produced, with greatest certainty and malignity.
5. There is very considerable risk in treating typhus cases along with other patients
in the wards of workhouses and general hospitals. Experience has shown that when so
treated, a quarter of the mortality from typhus has been among nurses or other persons
who have contracted the disease within the workhouse or hospital; while in hospitals
specially provided for isolating the sick, only one in every 37 deaths from typhus has
been that of a person contracting the disease in the hospital, and even this degree of
danger is lessened when the isolation of patients is rigorous and complete.
In view of these facts, the principles that the Association would urge as of chief
efficacy to control the spread of typhus are :—
1. That in no instance, where removal is practicable, should a typhus patient be retained
in the house where the disease has originated.