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

Limehouse 1897

Report on the sanitary condition of the Limehouse District (comprising the Parishes of Limehouse, Shadwell, and Wapping, and the Hamlet of Ratcliff) for the year 1897

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10
this chemical substance is in the human body the material cause
of the epidemic summer Diarrhœa." The development and
multiplication of the micro-organism depends on a high
temperature not in the air itself, but in the superficial layers of
the soil.
The rise in the Diarrhoea death rate does not begin till the
average weekly temperature of the thermometer(suspcnded in
an iron tube 4 feet deep in the earth) has reached 56° F. This
takes place about a week later than that in the air. Taking this
into consideration and that death occurs only after a longer or
shorter period of disease, the following table giving the number
of deaths from Diarrhoea in the district, side by side with the
average temperature of the air for the same week, shows the

Table: relationship existing between high temperatures of the soil, and epidemic summer Diarrhœa.

relationship existing between high temperatures of the soil, and epidemic summer Diarrhœa.

Week ending.No. of Cases.Mean Temperature of the Air.Week ending.No. of Cases.Mean Temperature of the Air.
January 9-39.6July 17365.5
16-37.824466.9
23-81.1311064.6
30-331August 7468.1
February 6-37.814963.6
13-41.421862.0
20-43.628959.6
27148.1September 4356.8
March 6-40.611354.2
13-41.018-54.6
20-46.525-55.4
27-51.9October 2156.5
April 3 10-42.29-48.4
142.416151.9
17-47.423-53.7
24-46.430-49.8
May 1-51.2November 6145.7
8-49.713248.0
15-47.320-47.5
22-57.327-48.4
29-53.5December 4-390
Jue 5-59.311-41.7
12-58.618-46.0
19-59.825-35.8
26-64.01898
July 3-64.4January 1-45.1
10161.5