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9
an offensive smell occasioned by the pigs in Union Place,
Chelsea; the Medical Officer of Health for that parish was
made acquainted with the circumstance.
In our Annual Report it is stated, " On the supposition
that Belgravia now contains 47,435 inhabitants, the number
of deaths in the district (815), added to those of the inhabitants
who died in St. George's Hospital (42), and to the
deaths in Little Chelsea Workhouse (41), which are added,
by way of compensation, together, make 898, which is at the
rate of 19.6 per thousand." We therefore inferred, that the
death-rate in Belgravia was higher than it is in the older
parts of the parish.
III. In the next place we will give some details respecting
the poor and their habitations, which will show,
at a glance, what their most pressing want is, and in what
way the charity of the rich can best be directed for their
relief. On the present occasion, allusion is made solely to
the Hanover and May Fair, or In Wards, for they are
smaller and more compact than Belgravia, lying as it were
within a ring fence; and the character of their poorer population
is different from that of Belgravia.
Out of the 33,000 inhabitants of the older part of St.
George, Hanover Square, about 20,000 live in first and
second class streets, and 13,000 in third class streets and
stables. It is fair to assume, that the number of the poor
(that is, of those who require medical attendance when sick,
and other aid at the hands of the rich) is 13,000, exclusive
of the inmates of the workhouse.
As we stated in our Annual Report, the mortality of the
dwellers in the better, and in the worse parts of the parish,
is very different. During the two years, ending Lady-day,
1858, there died at home in the houses of the 20,000 better
class, 425 persons, being at the rate of nearly 11 per