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
Kensington 1895
The annual report on the health, sanitary condition, &c., &c., of the Parish of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington for the year 1895
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Cancer. Malignant Disease, was accountable for 136
deaths; 94 in the Town sub-district and 42 in Brompton.
Cancer would appear to be on the increase in the country
generally: possibly, however, some portion of the apparent
increase in deaths classified to this cause, may be due to more
accurate diagnosis. The deaths in Kensington in the preceding
ten years, were 119, 128, 117, 121, 138, 125, 127, 129, 140, and
143 respectively. Deaths from cancer are usually more
numerous, proportionally to population, in the Brompton subdistrict
than in the relatively poorer Town sub-district, cancer
being quite as prevalent, probably even more prevalent,
amongst well-to-do people, than in the poorer classes. The
parts of the body most commonly affected are, the viscera or
internal organs; in women, the uterus and the breast; the
disease, moreover, being for the most part one of later life.
Thus, 112 of the deaths took place at ages above forty-five, and
21 between thirty-five and forty-five years.
Purpura, Hemorrhagic Diathesis, was the cause of 3
deaths; Anæmia and Leucocythæmia of 6 ; Glycosuria, Diabetes
Mellitus, of 16.
Tubercular Diseases were-the registered causes of 350
deaths, (compared with 293, 307, and 336, in the preceding
three years respectively); viz., 291 in the Town sub-district,
and 59 in Brompton; 61 of the deaths being those of children
under five years of age. In a few instances Phthisis was
returned as the cause of death even in infancy, a period of life
at which the tubercular diathesis commonly manifests itself in
other parts of the body than the lungs, e.g., the brain, bowels, &c.
Such deaths have been classified, in Table 111., with those
ascribed to " Other forms of Taberculosis, Scrofula;" the total
being 56 (of which 30 occurred under five years of age), including
47 registered in the Town sub-district. Tabes Mesenterira,
popularly known as " consumption of the bowels," was
the cause of 7 deaths (all of them in the Town sub-district)
5 of them under five years of age, and 2 under one year.