London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St George (Southwark) 1863

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr]

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16 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.

TABLE No. 5.

LUNG DISEASES, INCLUDING PHTHISIS1858—91859—601860—11861—2;1862—3Total
Phthisis146210173194197920
Bronchitis131130105108139613
Pneumonia10386907894451

Phthisis has been fatal in 197 cases; Bronchitis in 139 , and Pneumonia in 94: three
diseases the most destructive amongst those, which ordinarily afflict us; and in all of them,
there has been an increase upon the previous year; from Phthisis 3; from Bronchitis 31;
and from Pneumonia 16.
There have been registered 43 deaths from violence and privation; three more than in
1861-2. As usual, I will notice the most particular of these Ten children have perished
from accidental suffocation; their ages reaching from three days, to eight months. Two
deaths happened from burns; a child aged two years from the clothes taking fire; and a
woman from the same cause, and in the same manner. Three deaths from scalds have been
registered; a child aged 1 year from having the chest scalded, and followed by gangrene;
another aged 2 years from falling into a copper; and the third aged 1 year from overturning
a plate of hot soup. Three boys died from being run over; one aged 9, and another
10, from carts passing over their bodies; the third from a van passing over his head.
Injury to the brain has been fatal in 6 cases; a female aged 44 from apoplexy, caused by
excessive drinking; a male aged 70 from laceration of the brain following a fall; a male
aged 31 from compression produced by a similar accident; a child just born from a fracture
of the scull; and a female from rupture of the blood vessels of the brain, from external
violence. A male aged 71 was found dead in bed; a female aged 43 was found dead, from
lying with her head downwards, whilst intoxicated. A male aged 35, died in 48 hours
from erysipelas, produced by a poisoned wound. Two deaths are recorded from suicide;
one a female aged 40 from taking oxalic acid; the other, a man who cut his throat and
died instantly. There have been 2 deaths from wilful murder; a child newly born was
found with its throat cut; and a woman aged 33 died from two stabs in the abdomen;
made by a screw driver, and a chisel.
The deaths from old age have been 34; 47 persons had got beyond four score years
when they died. One was a widow aged 98, who had lived for more than 40 years in one
of those old wooden houses lately pulled down in Falstaff's Yard. This bears out a fact
long observed, that very old people are frequently met with in the most wretched parts of
a parish, where there is present every thing unfavourable to health, and where the average
duration of life is low.
The following Table contains the analyses of the Southwark, and Lambeth Thames
Companies, made by Dr. Robert Dundas Thomson, F.R.S., and published in the weekly