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13
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1874—5.
living: and in the London-road Sub-district there were registered 435 deaths, nearly 23
in 1000, or one in 43 persons. The population taken is that given by the census of 1871;
it is doubtless greater now.

The seasons necessarily affect the health, and consequently the death rate. The 2167
deaths in the whole year occurred as follows. In the three months ending 4th July, 1874,
287; in the three months ending 3rd October, 297; in the three months ending 2nd January,
1875, 326; and in the quarter ending 3rd April, 377. Thus we learn that the quarter
endingJuly, 1874, was the most healthy; and the quarter ending April, 1875, was the most
fatal. The excess of deaths in the most fatal quarter was 90.
Dr. Farr, (Somerset House), speaking of the results of Sanitary improvements carriod
out in London, states that "it is gratifying to find, that while the population has gone on
increasing, and has grown denser in parts formerly open, the mortality, on the whole, has
not increased; on the contrary, it has decreased." He then goes on to say, "Some disappointment
may be felt that the mortality of London, which should be below 20, has not
descended permanently to that rate: the reason is too obvious, for the water supply is still
drawn from the stream of upper Thames, which drains a populous basin, and receives much
of its impurities. Then it has been shown that although the main sewers have been well
laid, the branch sewers under the district boards, are still imperfect; they are in places
ponds of impurities, even in the West End of London. Fine old houses have had vast
cesspools laid in the proecloacal age ; and those cesspools in many cases remain undisturbed,
exhaling their fumes through the air. The London Building Act, in some respects worse
than the Sanitary Acts applying to the country districts, has no adequate clauses to provide
for the effectual purity of the new dwellings erected. There is still a want of thoroughness
in the London sanitary work, accounting fully for the higher rates of mortality, which look
unfavourable by the side of a high standard of salubrity, but favourable as compared with
the rates of other cities left in a worse state." In the South of London there has been a
decisive improvement.