London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Finsbury 1911

Report on the public health of Finsbury for the year 1911

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3. A mother and her three children were found lying in an
underground cellar. The father was in the workhouse.
4. A mother was so slovenly and dirty in her habits that her
husband refused to live with her, but allowed her 15s. per week.
5. A mother suffering from anaemia resumed her work of
making artificial flowers on the twelfth day after her confinement.
The father was out of work. There was no money to buy milk in
the house.
6. A mother had eight children. Five were still-born owing to
the fact that the mother had to work exceedingly hard as a bookfolder,
while still pregnant, "to keep the home together." The
husband was out of work. The three living children were born
during the period when her husband was in work, and she had
merely her own household duties to attend to.
7. The father, mother, and five children lived in one room.
The father came home at two in the morning, woke the mother
up to cook him some supper ; she was quite worn out. The father,
mother, baby and a child 2 years all slept in a bed four feet wide.
Going back to bed, the mother breast-fed the baby and went to
sleep suckling the child. The baby died overlain. The mother
begged some cow dung from a neighbouring cowshed and put a
"manure poultice" on her breasts to "dry up the milk."
The Fathers.—The occupations of the fathers were as
follows:—Labourers 73, Carmen 35, Porters 23, Street Hawkers,
15, Packers, Opticians, Organ Grinders, Potmen 3 each, Horsekeepers,
Newsvendors, Fish Friers, Window Cleaners 2 each, the
rest were employed in various other callings one in each.
Of the labourers, 27 were out of work, only 21 were in
regular work, 19 were employed casually.
Of the carmen, 23 were in regular work, 12 were unemployed.
The total number of unemployed amongst the 200 was 57, or 28.5
per cent. The unemployment record was as follows :—