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
Southwark 1893
Annual report for 1893 of the Medical Officer of Health
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12 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
T able X.—
| Birth.rate per 1,000. | Death.rate per 1,000. | Zymotic death.rate. | Influenza death.rate. | Phthisis death.rate. | Other Tubercular Diseases death.rate. | Respiratory Diseases death.rate. | Deaths under 1 year, to 1,000 births. | Percentage of deaths under 5 to total deaths. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. George's, Southwark | 35.9 | 25.2 | 3.6 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 5.5 | 188 | 44.3 |
| London | 30.9 | 20.3 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 4.5 | 155 | 39.9 |
| St. George's, Southwark | 35.3 | 27.6 | 40 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 1.6 | 6.7 | 213 | 45.8 |
| London | 30.9 | 21.3 | 3.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 4 5 | 157 | 38.4 |
T able XI.
| Actual number of Deaths in St. George, Southwark. | St. George's, Southwark, proportion to total London deaths, according to its population. | |
|---|---|---|
| Diarrhœa | 63 | 47 |
| Whooping Cough | 59 | 32 |
| Scarlet Fever | 41 | |
| Diphtheria | 41 | 45 |
| Measles | 22 | 23 |
| Fever (chiefly Typhoid) | ||
| Small.pox | 7 | 3 |
The mortality is thus seen from the foregoing table to be excessive from diarrhoea,
whooping cough, scarlet fever, fever, and small.pox in St. George's as compared with
all London.
Diarrhoea.—This disease was the cause of 63 deaths as against 53 for 1892. The
increased fatality of diarrhoea was probably due to the exceptional summer heat and
drought, acting chiefly in the close courts, alleys, and adjacent badly.kept streets,
especially in the Borough Road and Kent Road sub.districts. In 1892 the usual
summer outbreak, which had begun in the month of June, was arrested by the comparatively
cold weather of July. Forty.three of the deaths were of infants under
one year of age, sixty.two in those under five, and one in a person over that age.
The fact is significant that the pail system of dust removal is followed in the London
Road sub.district alone, the one in which there have been the fewest deaths recorded
from diarrhoea during the past two years.
In a report presented by me to your Vestry in 1892 I advocated the extension of
the pail system of dust removal throughout the parish.