Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, Borough of]
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of the Borough have gone to considerable expense in issuing instructions
" How to feed infants," but the gross carelessness exhibited by many
mothers makes one almost disbelieve in the existence of much " maternal
instinct" among the lowest of the people.
The annual rate per 1,000 living was .95.
Deaths from Diarrhea duking the last Ten Years.
1894 96 1899 260
1895 205 1900 233
1896 214 1901 222
1897 300 1902 169
1898 306 1903 197
In the case of every death from Diarrhæa the house was examined,
and the circumstances of the case fully reported upon.
SMALL POX.
During the year 1903, 40 cases of Small-Pox were notified. There
was no death from the disease in the Borough throughout the year.
Deaths from Small Pox during the last 10 years:—
1894 2 1899 —
1895 4 1900 —
1896 1 1901 14
1897 1 1902 78
1898 — 1903 —
Of the 40 cases notified, all, with the exception of one, were removed
at once to hospital.
There was no particular interest attaching to the isolated cases, which
occasionally occurred in the first three quarters of the year. The number
was only 15, and as far as I could learn the complaint was limited to the
tenement affected. On the 8th October, a draper's canvasser, whose duty
took him principally into the Borough of Lambeth, was certified to be
suffering from Small Pox at No. 8, Great Charlotte Street. On visiting
the patient I found him in the pustular stage of the complaint, and learned
that he had been for the past three days, with the rash well out upon him,
mixing freely with the rest of the lodgers of this common lodging-house.
From this case at least 15 other cases could be traced. The Public Health
Committee agreed to my proposition of paying each inmate of this
lodging-house, who consented to be vaccinated, the sum of 2s. 6d. as
compensation for probable loss of work. Sixty persons consented to be