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
West Ham 1899
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1899
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Table II.
| Zymotic Diseases. | Annual death-rate per 1,000 living during the ten years 1888-1897 in— | No. of large Towns in which death-rate exceeded that of West Ham. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 large English Towns. | London. | West Ham. | ||
| Small-pox | .02 | .01 | .05 | 4 |
| Measles | .59 | .62 | .61 | 8 |
| Scarlatina | .25 | .23 | .24 | 11 |
| Diphtheria | .31 | .48 | .43 | — |
| Whooping Cough | .52 | .56 | .55 | 4 |
| Fever | .20 | .15 | .22 | 15 |
| Diarrhœa | .86 | .67 | .76 | 22 |
The foregoing statistics, being interpreted, mean that West Ham
is not quite so bad as some of its neighbours, which is not the same
thing as showing that West Ham is as good as it should be. They
do not tend far upon that road towards improvement which we all
desire, but they do suggest that the causes of West Ham's zymotic
death-rate are general rather than specific, and that amelioration is
not to be sought by any heroic effort in one direction only. It is by
some considered abnormal that the zymotic death-rate of West Ham
should be high while the general death-rate is low; in other words,
that because the one is low the other ought necessarily to be low.
This does not follow, as in some respects one of the factors promoting
a low general death-rate may aid and abet the establishment of a high
zymotic death-rate. This has, I believe, in times past happened in
West Ham. The constant accession of young, good lives, such as
young married couples from the Metropolis, which has gone on for