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
St George (Southwark) 1860
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr]
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14 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
will be seen that the deaths from these diseases are nearly equal in each year, although very
unequal in the different quarters.
TABLE No. 3.
1857—58
1858—59
1859—60
LUNG DISEASES
INCLUDING
PHTHISIS
First
Quarter
Second
Quarter
Third
Quarter
Fourth
Quarter
Total
First
Quarter
Second
Quarter
Third
Quarter
Fourth
Quarter
Total
First
Quarter
Second
Quarter
Third
Quarter
Fourth
Quarter
Total
Phthisis
41
39
47
43
170
36
37
38
52
52
50
56
210
Bronchitis
34
9
40
55
138
23
6
59
20
8
50
52
130
Pneumonia
14
9
35
23
81
19
12
38
22
5
20
39
86
I would call your attention to the ages at which the deaths have occurred. Under the
age of 5 years, 681 deaths took place, which is nearly 50 per cent. of all the deaths: between
5 and 20 years of age, 103, or 74 per cent.: between 20 and 60 years, 361, or 26 per cent.:
between 60 and 80 years, 196, or 1416 per cent. Above the age of 80 years, 43, or 3 per
cent: and one old woman reached the advanced age of 101 years, and she resided in Friar
Street.
In Table No. 4 is placed before you the ages of those who have died from the diseases
which give rise to the greatest mortality. From Zymotic diseases children are the chief
sufferers: tabes, hydrocephalus, convulsions, and dentition, are also most obnoxious and
fatal to children. Those who have died from phthisis and lung disease aire principally above
20 years of age, most of them cut off in the prime of life. Small-pox has found its greatest
number of victims amongst those who are between 5 and 20 years of age.
TABLE No. 4.
Small Pox
Measles
Scarlatina
Hooping Cough
Diarrhoea and Cholera
Typhus
Diseases of Brain
Disease of Heart
Phthisis
All other Lung Diseases
Tabes, 1 ZHydrocephalus,
Convulsions, and Dnetition
65
16
40
34
66
9
17
18
104
172
Above 5 Years
and
Under 20 Years
82
..
14
1
3
10
2
5
20
4
6
Above 20 Years
6
..
1
3
8
18
23
172
127
1
Following the example of the Registrar General, I shall detail the number of deaths
connected with the strike which occurred in our district. But having no standard wherewith
to mark their increase or decrease, they can only be given as solitary facts. The