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TO THE VESTRY OF BERMONDSEY.
July 18th 1859.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, —During the last four weeks we
have experienced, almost without interruption, summer heat above
the average, and with nearly two miles of our Parish boundary constituted
by the River Thames, which is now reeking, blackened, and
almost insupportable from the stench arising from its putridity, I have,
from week to week, watched with considerable anxiety the progress
of disease amongst us, and its effects upon the lives of our denizens.
It is with almost unmixed satisfaction I find that the health of the
population, as a general rule, continues to be in most respects satisfactory.
In the week ending June 18th, although we had 3 Deaths from
Scarlatina, 2 from Whooping Cough, 1 from Typhus, and 1 from
Small Pox, yet the total was but 18, while the corrected average
would have been 23.
For the week following that ending the 25th of June, the Deaths
were 29; 8 from Scarlatina, 1 from Measles, 2 from Small Pox, 1
from Diarrhœa, and 1 from Whooping Cough. The mortality this
week was 5 in excess of the average.
In the week terminating July 2nd, the Deaths were 26, being
about 4 in excess of the average; we had again 3 from Scarlatina, 3
Measles, 2 from Diarrhœa, and 1 from Typhus.
For the week ending July 9th, the deaths were 21, as compared
with an average of about 23. There was 1 death from Typhus, 1
from Diarrhœa, 1 from Diptheria, and 1 from Small Pox.
Although these isolated cases of malignant and epidemic diseases,
are sufficient to keep up our watchfulness, with some degree also of
anxiety, still it is a subject of consolation and encouragement to find
that, instead of, as of old, spreading from child to child, from room to
room, tenement to tenement, house to house, street to street, district to
district, till a wide circle became stricken by the ravages of these
several diseases, now almost without exception it is only in isolated
cases, or in very small groups that these diseases afflict and trouble us.
A fatal case of Diptheria occurred at No. 1, Queen's Road. On
visiting the house I found not only an open cesspool, but also a close,
confined, strong-smelling stable, without drainage, and a considerable
heap of manure in the yard.
Refering to a subject of general Metropolitan interest, the condition
of the Thames, and its influence upon public health, I am of opinion
that, bad as it is, yet there is a clear and decided gain to the community
at large, in bringing this vast amount of putrescent, putrifying,
and matter prone to putrifaction, from the close, confined, narrow
streets, ill-ventilated courts, small dwellings, and tenements of the
crowded Poor, into the light and even heat of the present season.
Now the evil is seen and appreciated by all; formerly it was felt
almost solely, always primarily, by the Poor. It was then concentrated,
it is now diffused. Now it is brought to the Nostrils of our
Legislators, and our poor Productive Classes can breathe in consequence
a purer atmosphere.
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