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38 Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1869—70.
tilation, of which I have frequently spoken; there are many other causes I shall for
the present pass over. Mesenteric disease destroyed 88 children, nine in excess of the year
1868-9; and hydrocephalus 13. These diseases are mark of a degenerate constitution;
and so far as regards the health and strength of society the deaths may not bo deplored.
Diseases of the brain and nerves come under the order of local diseases, and have proved
fatal in 223 eases, an excess of two over the previous year. One hundred and fourteen
children died from convulsions. Deaths from this cause have steadily increased. Deaths
from disease of the brain have risen from 29 of 1868-9 to 10 of 1869-70. Insanity too is
upon the increase, and strange to say, this increase is confined to the poor, amongst whom
wo should certainly not expect to meet with high sensibility, or exhausted and overwrought
brains. The savage feels no sorrow for the past, and is troubled with no distrust about the
future. Ho lives for the day. But civilization destroys this apathy, and man can no longer
go on in this heedless course. Anxiety and sorrow leave their impress indelibly stamped
upon his brow, and ho is filled with despair when ho thinks of old age with all its attendant
evils gradually stealing upon him, and dreads ending a life of weary and hard labour within
the gloomy walls of a workhouse. The physical condition of man claims far more attention
and care than has yet been given to it. Not only may the brain suffer from brain work,
but equally from the sanitary surroundings in which man is placed. There are numerous
cases of insanity on record, the cause of which were with certainty owing to overcrowding,
and bad sanitary conditions in general. Physical deterioration will produce mental
deterioration. To prevent the former falls within the line of your duties.
Thirty-eight deaths were attributed to prematura birth and debility. Ton infants were
accidently suffocated, their ages ranging from five days to six months. Two of them were
found dead in the shawls in which they had been closely wrapped, to preserve them from the
cold. A male infant was scalded to death by a cup hot tea being spilled over him; and
two more boys met with a similar kind of death. Two girls wore burnt to death from their
clothes taking fire. Two females, aged respectively 40, and 64, mot their death by fulls.
Three males, aged respectively 10, 37, and 44 years, were run over, and died from the
injuries received. A male, aged 78, died from congestion of the brain, produced by
cold. Two infants were found dead; one in the Paragon, the other in York Court. A
male, aged 50, cut his throat; another, aged 48, poisoned himself; and a female, aged
52, hung herself. A man, aged 37, was killed by being struck with a poker; and a
woman, aged 21, had her throat cut. Three females died in the Workhouse, aged respectively
90, 95, and 98 years. Another female, aged 97, died in Now Street; and a fifth
female died in Webber Street, aged 100. She had been a widow and an annuitant for 82
years. Of these who died, 875 were under five years of ago, 250 were sixty years of ago
and upwards, and 42 were over eighty.