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NO.10
Parish of Saint George the Martyr, Southwark.
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH,
For the Second Quarter, 1858.
August 1858.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Vestry,
I have now to present my report for the second quarter, 1858, comprising 13 weeks,
from April 3rd to July 3rd.
I have, during this period, presented five reports to the Vestry, and one in accordance
with the new arrangements, to the Sewers Committee.
The usual Tables are appended to this report.
The first Table shews the mortality of the different quarters, as compared with those
of other years : the first, third and fourth quartets show considerable changes, not only in themselves,
but as compared with the average; but in the quarter upon which I am now reporting, the
number of deaths recorded, is for 1856,292; for 1857,296; and for 1858, 299—the average is
294'8. The causes of death in the second quarter, seem therefore, to be very uniform, and the
results, so far as numbers go, equally so. The actual number for 1858, 296, should (for correct
application) be compared with the average, increased by one-tenth for increase of population ; in
which case a marked improvement will be evident: 299 as against 324.2 the corrected average..
To set forth the condition of our Parish alone, will no doubt, give us much useful information :
this, however, is much better attained by comparison. The condition of a few other Parishes,
which may be suitably compared with ours, is therefore given, as before, in the second Table. I
have selected some, with certain fixed and important characteristics, and with the fewest disturbing
elements ; free from large hospitals which receive the sick and dying of other districts. The first
column of this Table shows what those characteristics are; and the last nine columns show the
results in sickness and mortality; not that the experience of a quarter taken alone, will be of
much value; but the records of quarter after quarter and year after year, will, I have no doubt,
prove most valuable. In columns ten and twelve this Parish shows for the past a higher
mortality than any. In column sixteen, our present mortality is shewn as being less unfavorable
than three of the others, and as bearing a very good comparison with two others of the Parishes
better situated.
The third Table shews a considerably increased mortality from Zymotic disease; 34 in
the last or hottest month : the excess, no doubt, owing chiefly to the heated and stagnant
condition of the atmosphere. The meteorological condition of April and May calls for no
remark beyond what the Table shows. The mean temperature of the quarter was only
2 degrees above the average; but in June, when the principal mortality took place, the mean
temperature was 66'5 Fahrenheit; last June it was 63-2; the average for the last thirty years,
59'G. On the 16th the highest temperature in the shade was 94'5: fourteen days were
over 80 deg. in the shade, and twenty-two over 100 deg. in the sun ; on one day it reached as
high as 119'5—An exceedingly hot and dry month, with the temperature, in three of the
weeks, 6. 8 and 10 deg. higher than the average of forty years; and the rainfall not quite one-fifth
the usual amount: the air had also very little movement: this condition of things will
account for the peculiar character of the mortality, and for the very just outcry as to the condition
of the banks of the Thames. You may judge of the effect of such a temperature upon exposed
dungheaps; wet, sloppy yards; and rotten filthy uncovered water butts; three characteristics
of this Parish ; and how an unusually stagnant atmosphere allows the fetid exhalations to
remain where they arise. It will also account for the exceedingly offensive effluvia spread of late
far and wide from Green Street; and which our insufficient, I will not 6ay temporizing, measures
have so far failed to amend in any very great degree. The report handed in some time since by
the Committee of the Vestry, specially appointed for this purpose, would, in my opinion, if completely
acted upon, have amended the evil. The Surgeon of the district writes thus in his
weekly return to the Board of Guardians: " The smell is very bad from a horse boiling
establishment in Green Street, which causes a great increase of sickness near that part." This
of course refers to the bone boiling and other like establishments ; of which there are in this one
small street, three Cat-Gut Manufacturers, one Soap Boiler, one Horse Slaughterer and four Bone
Boilers, all very offensive Trades. I am receiving complaints in all directions as to this matter.
I am inclined to think, that this is not altogether just to the 20,000 inhabitants who live within
the effluvia circle of Green Street.
While on meteorological subjects, I must note a peculiar quality of the oxygen of the
atmosphere lately discovered, and which is called ozone. This substance has apparently the
power of oxydizing, of purifying ; that is, of destroying putrefaction : it is more or less an
electrical agent, and is usually discovered in large quantities on the outskirts of London ; for
instance, Hackney and Fulham; and is, so to speak, almost all "used up" before it reaches
the central districts; it is, we presume, absorbed in oxydizing the putrefactive effluvia of the
inmost parts of the town: probably if we were careful to avoid unnecessary causes of foulness,