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not in sufficient quantity to be actually injurious to health. It is
however a recognized legal impurity, and will serve to account for
the corrosion of the gas fittings.
Complaint has been made to me of a foul and offensive condition
of the cesspools at 14 and 15, Corrugated row. This district is one
in which the orders of the Board have not hitherto been carried out.
I respectfully urge upon the Vestry, that this is an opportune period
for pressing forward and completing sanitary improvements.
I certify, that Ship and Mermaid court is in a condition to be
highly dangerous and injurious to the health of the inhabitants.—
The privies are filthy in the extreme. It may be in the recollection
of the Board, that I have on several former occasions had to report
upon the disgraceful condition of this place. I look upon it as a
hot-bed, for propagating and fostering the seeds of disease. Lately,
I regret to state, several cases of Small Pox have occurred here;
one fatal.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your faithful Servant
JOHN CHALLICE, M.D.
Officer of Health.
TO THE VESTRY OF BERMONDSEY.
March 5th, 1860.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, —The mortality of our district for
the two weeks, ending respectively the 18th and 25th of February,
has been unusually severe. For the former period the deaths were
33, the corrected average being 25, and for the latter period 34, the
average being within a fraction of 25. This increased mortality is
not however from any local cause or in a great degree from the prevalence
of epidemic disease. The entire population of the Metropolis
appears to have suffered from this excess of mortality; affections
of the chest, such as Bronchitis and Inflammation of the Lungs,
have contributed largely to this result. —As usual the aged and very
young, combined, contribute most largely to the tables of mortality.
As an illustration of the 9 deaths in St. James district in the week