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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1859. 15
sufferings, and privations undergone during that period, must necessarily have resulted in an
increase of sickness and in the filling up of many a premature grave. Of bricklayers, one
died during the strike; of bricklayers' wives, one; of bricklayers' children, one; of
carpenters' wives, two died; of carpenters' children, two; of painters, three died; of
painters' wives, one; of painters' children, four; of plasterers, one died; of builders'
children, one died; of labourers, two died ; of labourers' children, eight.
I shall conclude this part of my Report by stating the casualties which have
happened.
Two deaths have taken place from want of the common necessaries of life, to which, in
one case, was added exposure to cold. Six infants perished from want of breast-milk. A
girl, aged six, was burnt to death from her clothes taking fire. A woman, aged 40, destroyed
herself by hanging. Twelve deaths have occurred from suffocation ; one of them was a man
who, effectually to carry out his purpose, had stuffed his mouth with a handkerchief, covered
his mouth and nose with another, and then tied a cord round his neck. The other deaths
were those of infants found suffocated in bed. The Registrar General states that deaths
from this cause are more common at seasons of festive indulgence. One infant was drowned
by falling into a tub of water; one man, aged 40, from falling through a skylight and
fracturing his skull; a woman, aged 73, died from concussion, by her falling from off the
bed ; another aged woman perished from falling down in a fit and remaining several hours
upon the floor before being discovered; and another, aged GO, was fouud dead in bed.
In Table No. 5 (see next Page) you will find those streets named in which deaths
from Zymotic diseases have occurred; and, upon inspection, a very clear impression is produced
of the injury arising from filth, closeness, and over-crowding. I shall not single out any,
as you can examine them for yourselves. With reference to the mortality in those streets
in which various noxious trades are carried on, no very accurate conclusion can be arrived at,
as the inhabitants are constantly changing. It does not appear that the mortality is greater
in them than in those where no such trades are established. However, there can exist little
doubt but that evil effects do arise from them, only so imperceptibly and slowly that proof is
difficult.
According to your request I reported concerning the water taken from three pumps,
the analysis of which was kindly undertaken by Mr. Drew. But owing to a " longer time
being required, and the process being much more difficult than he anticipated," only the
water taken from the pump opposite 69, Blackman Street, was analyzed. This analysis
" seemed to represent very nearly the true character of the other samples, though they were
still more largely impregnated with saline matters." I shall add the analysis forwarded by
Mr. Drew, and also those of the Lambeth and Southwark Companies, which I copy from the
Registrar General's returns. Pure water, for drinking and household purposes, is of the
greatest importance; the health of the consumers being powerfully, yet gradually, influenced
in proportion as it is, or is not pure.
There exists no room for complaint of the water now given us by the different companies,
except perhaps its insufficiency. Still it would be much more satisfactory to our
sense of delicacy, at least, if the refuse of so many towns and villages were not poured into
the river before it reaches the place from whence the companies obtain it.
Soft water is much better in every respect than hard. The water analyzed contains
a very large proportion of saline matter, especially the nitrates, and such salts are always
met with where decaying animal matter abounds. It is "eloquent of contamination
with humaft excreta" and other abominations; and, indeed, it is not easy to conceive how
it should be otherwise, as our wells are but the receptacles of the washings from our streets,