Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1899
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All Causes. | Diphtheria | Fever. | Diarrhœa. | Infant Mortality per 1,000 Births. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
33 Great Towns | 20.4 | 0.31 | 0.20 | 0.86 | 167 |
London | 19.7 | 0.48 | 0.15 | 0.67 | 155 |
West Ham | 17.4 | 0.43 | 0.22 | 0.76 | 154 |
Croydon | 14.4 | 0.29 | 0.11 | 0.47 | 128 |
Brighton | 17.5 | 0.17 | 0.12 | 0.66 | 148 |
Portsmouth | 17.4 | 0.17 | 0.23 | 0.82 | 150 |
Plymouth | 20.6 | 0.16 | 0.16 | 0.64 | 164 |
Bristol | 18.5 | 0.13 | 0.12 | 0.50 | 144 |
Cardiff | 18.4 | 0.31 | 0.17 | 0.82 | 160 |
Swansea | 19.0 | 0.09 | 0.19 | 0.36 | 157 |
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
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