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

View report page

West Ham 1899

Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1899

This page requires JavaScript

Death Rates per 1,000 living for the 10 years 1888-1897.

All Causes.DiphtheriaFever.Diarrhœa.Infant Mortality per 1,000 Births.
33 Great Towns20.40.310.200.86167
London19.70.480.150.67155
West Ham17.40.430.220.76154
Croydon14.40.290.110.47128
Brighton17.50.170.120.66148
Portsmouth17.40.170.230.82150
Plymouth20.60.160.160.64164
Bristol18.50.130.120.50144
Cardiff18.40.310.170.82160
Swansea19.00.090.190.36157

A casual glance at the foregoing table shows that the City of
Bristol during the last 10 years not only favourably held its own in
freedom from diseases usually held to be indicative of good or bad
sanitation, but, in almost every instance, was far in advance of the
other towns enumerated.
When it is remembered that all the above towns have ventilated
sewers save only Bristol, and that, in addition, the sewers of Bristol
are tide-locked during several hours each day, it is, surely, wise to
pause before making dogmatic statements on the subject of ventilation,
and to ask oneself whether the necessity for ventilation on the lines
O 2