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9
Public Health in Retrospect
1862-1962
Continuing my reading of the Annual Reports written by Medical
Officers of Health for the Parish of Battersea one hundred years ago,
I think the following information and extracts from the Report by
Dr.W. Connor the year 1862, together with comparative figures
for 1962, will be of interest.
The estimated population of the Parish of Battersea in 1862 was
20,300 (1962—104,020), an increase of 718 over the 1861 Census figure,
The population at the time of the 1851 Census was 10,560, and in 1841
is was only 6,617- a threefold increase in twenty years. It would appear
that about one-third of this increase was due to the natural increase of
births over deaths, and at that time it was considered that the other
two-thirds was due to immigration in connection with the rapidly expanding
manufacturing businesses in Battersea. (Between 1952 and 1962
there was a decrease in population of approximately 12,000.)
In 1862,of the 491 Battersea deaths (1962—1,345) 113 occurred
from the following infectious diseases : Small Pox—2, Measles—16,
Scarlatina—15, Diphtheria—8, Whooping Cough—25, Typhus and
Infantile Fever—17, Erysipelas—7, Diarrhoea and Dysentery—22,
Cholera- 1. (In 1962 there were no deaths from any of these causes.)
Speaking of an excess of 293 births over deaths which occurred
during the year 1862 (1962—841) Dr. Connor reports : —
"This large natural increase also favours the view taken of the
sanitation carried out in this sub-district having experienced a very great
influence in promoting the health and comfort of the inhabitants."
In 1862, Battersea was one of five parishes comprising the Wandsworth
District of the Board of Works, the others being Clapham,
Wandsworth, Putney and Roehampton, and Streatham including Tooting
and Balham. It is interesting to note that Dr. Connor reports that
during the year, out of a total of 679 water-closets constructed in the
entire District, 477 were in Battersea ; of 686 houses supplied with water,
477 were in Battersea, and of 636 dustbins provided, 477 were in
Battersea. As Dr. Connor reports—" It will be manifest . . . that there
has been no abatement of the energy with which Sanitary improvements
have been carried out in former years; indeed it must be conceded to
this sub-district that, seeing the many drawbacks which every large manufacturing
population always presents to the attainment of a high sanitary
status, it has during the seven years of the operation of the Metropolis
Local Management Act, made great advances towards that which
legislation has sought to accomplish."