Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report upon the public health and sanitary condition of the Parish of St. Mary, Battersea during the year1896
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the growth of what has been termed the "new humanity," which
made the care of the sick and the protection of the public health
against noxious agencies matters of public concern and active
philanthropy, influences for good with which the names of Howard
and of Cook and of Haygarth are honourably and eternally
associated.
Since Dr. Farr compiled the figures which we have quoted
above, we have five completed decades of registration statistics,
and extracting for London the death rates to the same scale from
all causes, from Small-Pox, and from Fever, we obtain the
following :—
Annual Death Rates in London per 100,000 living from:—
- | All Causes. | Small-Pox. | Fever. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1841-50 | 2,500 | 40 | 97 | |
1851-60 | 2,400 | 28 | 88 | |
1861-70 | 2,400 | 27 | 90 | |
1871-80 | 2,240 | 45 | 37 | |
1881-90 | 2,037 | 14 | 21 |
We are, therefore, led to the conclusion that the great fall in
the Fever death rate since the middle of last cnntury in London is
a real and substantial one, that it is in all probability due to
greater sanitary activity, and that a fall of about the same amount
has, during the same period, taken place in Small-Pox mortality,
and we are unable to agree that it is not largely due to similar
causes.
This is, in fact, what we find when we examine such figures
as are available for determining the influence of inoculation on the
prevalence of and mortality from small-pox, as, for instance, the
London Bills of Mortality. Whether we consider the horribly
insanitary conditions with the attendant overcrowding, or the
disregard of precautions against contagion, it would probably be
difficult to conceive conditions more favourable to the spread and