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
Lewisham 1867
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lewisham]
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TABLE I.
1867.
| Registrar's Sub-Districts. | Enumerated Population, 1851. | Enumerated Population, 1861. | Estimated Population as calculated Logarithmally to the middle of 1867. | Estimated Population at so many per house, taking the number per house in 1861. | Number of Inhabited Houses, 1851 (Census). | Number of Inhabited Houses, 1861 (Census). | Number of Inhabited Houses, middle of 1867. | Average number of persons per house(1851). | Average number of persons per house(1861). | Average mortality per 1000, assuming a population obtained from the number per house in 1861 and the number of inhabited houses in 1867. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackheath a part of Lewishham Parish in Sub-District of Lee) | 4466 | 4841 | 5080 | 5190 | 728 | 807 | 868 | 6 13 | 598 | 12.52 |
| Lewisham (a part of Lewisham Parish in Sub-District of Lewisham Vil lage) | 6097 | 7372 | 8273 | 9078 | 1088 | 1326 | 1677 | 5.6 | 5.35 | *16.41 |
| Sydenham Chapelry | 4501 | 10595 | 17695 | 17746 | 801 | 1656 | 2572 | 5.61 | 6.9 | 13.58 |
| The whole of Lewisham Parish | 15064 | 22788 | 31048 | 32014 | 2617 | 3789 | 5117 | 5.75 | 6.02 | |
| Hamlet Of Pence | 1169 | 5015 | 12015 | 11400 | 153 | 668 | 1520 | 7.64 | 7.50 | 12.01 |
| 16233 | 27803 | 43063 | 43414 |
As the population of the district rapidly increases, the
mortality must also necessarily increase, and on looking back
for several years, we find a considerable increase in the mortality.
The following table gives the total mortality for the previous
eleven years.
TABLE V.
1856
1857
1858
1859 ! 1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
345
375
409
433 455
405
497
533
598
552
674
But although in eleven years the population has no doubt
doubled, we do not find that the mortality has increased in
the same ratio.
The mortality for the year 1867 is considerably less than
that of 1866, although this district (no doubt in a great
measure owing to the careful sanitary measures carried out
by order of the Board of Works), was not materially affected
by the then cholera epidemic, only ten deaths having occurred
from cholera and eleven from diarrhœa during the year 1866,
some of these having been communicated from infected districts.
The mortality tables (Table No. 6) appended gives a detailed
account of the canses of death and the different ages when
death took place in the district.
From these tables it may be perceived that 136 (or rather
more than one-fifth) died of zymotic disease, out of which