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 1902
Annual report on the health, sanitary condition, etc., etc., of the Royal Borough of Kensington for the year1902
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25
All things considered, Kensington came well out of the trouble—thanks, largely, to the
well vaccinated condition of the population.
Hampstead and Chelsea had the fewest notified cases (26 and 44 respectively) proportionately
to population. Kensington came next. The small-pox death-rate was lowest in Kensington if the
deaths of non-parishioners are excluded; viz., 0.5 per 10,000.
Eighty-nine cases occurred in North Kensington (population 91,500), which comprises four
Wards, and only 17 in the five Wards comprised in South Kensington (population 86,000).
In 58 instances there was but one case to a house, in 7 instances two cases, in 4 instances
three, in 4 instances four, in a single instance six.
| Age-period. | Notifications. | Deaths. |
|---|---|---|
| — | ||
| — | ||
The subjoined table shows that, with few exceptions, the patients belonged to the poorer
classes, who are not characterised by over-much belief in the efficacy of vaccination, nor, as a rule,
by willingness to accept re-vaccination, as an ordinary measure of precaution, in the absence of
imminent danger.
* Five of these were secondary cases, the origin of one case only is unknown.