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

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Bermondsey 1914

Report on the sanitary condition of the Borough of Bermondsey for the year 1914

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Offensive Trades.
The offensive trades on the Register are as follows: —
Tripe boiler 1
Glue and size makers 4
Fellmongers 3
Fat melters 4
Manure manufacturer 1
Summer diarrhœa and Flies.
The following reports were made to the Council, who gave
instructions for a copy of the handbill to be left at every house and
the posters to be fixed in various places in the Borough.
Unfortunately owing to the outbreak of war almost immediately
after initiating the campaign, this fell rather flat and people
showed more anxiety about national than domestic affairs. Nevertheless
it did good and from conversation with the members of the
working classes I found much more knowledge about flies than I
would have anticipated.
"Now that summer is approaching it is advisable that the
Committee should consider what, if anything, can be done to lessen
the mortality from infective diarrhœa which is especially prevalent
during that season. In 1910 the deaths numbered 87; in 1911,
226; in 1912, 84; and in 1913, 78. The victims are practically
all infants under two years of age and between 70 and 80 per cent.
of these under one year of age. I have drawn attention to the
matter in every annual report since 1901 and am doing so specially
this spring since some new information bearing on the cause of the
disease has come to light within the last 18 months. The onset
of the disease is as a rule sudden. A young infant apparently quite
well takes to vomiting its milk; this is accompanied by diarrhœa
and severe pains in the abodmen. At first the motions are natural
but they shortly become watery and very frequent; the infant
rapidly becomes exhausted and within a few hours to two or three
days death occurs from collapse and heart failure. The symptoms
in the severer forms, whether they occur in infants or adults are
exactly similar to those of Asiatic cholera. In Asiatic cholera we
know the specific micro-organism causing the disease but all
attempts to find a special organism causing "summer" or
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