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

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St George (Southwark) 1868

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

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38
Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
told us, yet it would be well to put the teaching into practice, not only for health's sake
but also for the sake of cleanliness. The air after being used in the lungs, is like water
after having been used for washing, only fit to be got rid of as fast and as effectually as
possible, and not retained by closed windows, boarded fire-places, and listed doors. If we
could only see its foulness we should need no exhortation to allow its escape.
Under the class Local Diseases, are included the affections of particular organs of the
body, whether assailed by inflammation or by mere functional derangement. Two hundred
and twenty seven deaths from the brain and nervous system were recorded. Disease
of this kind is steadily upon the increase. The number of deaths during the last five years
have been as follows: 189, 197, 198, 211, and 227. This gives cause for reflection. The
opinion is also daily becoming more confirmed and general, that insanity is upon the increase;
an increase outrunning the increase of the population. It is an established fact,
that insanity reaches its highest point amongst civilized communities. City life, with all
its struggles, anxieties, mental excitement, late hours, vices and pleasures, is one of the
main causes. Mental culture has also been greatly increased of late years, and that not
equally. The reasoning powers have been left too much in abeyance, whilst the emotional
have been unduly excited. This unfortunately has been too much the object with many of
our popular preachers and writers. Manly exercises were once considered the foundation
of that elevation of mind, which gives one nature influence over another. Now physical
force is becoming less and less necessary. The strong-brained have supplanted the stronglimbed.
The intellect has become the highway to wealth, position, and power.
Diseases of the lungs (consumption excluded) exhibit a considerable diminution in
their mortality. Two hundred and twenty deaths are attributed to them, and these were
chiefly owing to inflammation of the air passages and cells. They cause about 40 per cent.
of the mortality. The seasons increase or diminish their mortality to a remarkable degree.
"The difference between winter's cold and summer's heat," says Dr. Farr, "will cause a
loss or saving of 800 lives in a week." Sanitary neglect and want of personal cleanliness
add to their fatality. It is these diseases which make our winter mortality so high; hence
the necessity of careful protection against cold.
Teething destroyed 15 infants, and to premature birth and debility were attributed 51
deaths. Suffocation was the cause of 15 deaths; 12 of these were infants, and were found dead
in bed, with one exception; this exception was an infant which had been wrapped up in a shawl
so carefully, that when the shawl was opened it was found smothered. A new-born infant
was found dead in West Square. A male, aged 42, was found suffocated in the bed clothes,
and a female, aged 72, perished from the same cause, by falling backwards and forcing her
head upon her chest. Injuries to the brain gave rise to 8 deaths. The falling of the shafts
of a cart killed a girl, aged 4 years; and upon a male, aged 63, a pocket of hops fell; the
others died from falls, or from being run over. A woman, aged 42, was killed by falling into
the sewer in Westminster-bridge-road. A girl, aged 2 years, was poisoned from drinking
paraffine. Two females were burnt from their clothes taking fire, aged respectively 20 and
67 years. Four persons committed suicide. A male, aged 64, hung himself; another, aged
60, poisoned himself by taking laudanum; and a third by taking prussic acid; a female
(insane) set fire to herself with a lucifer match. Seven persons died whose ages had reached
and passed four score years and ten ; two were aged 90, one 92, 93, 94, 95, and 98.