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

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Hanover Square 1859

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hanover Square, The Vestry of the Parish of Saint George]

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8
measures of the amount of sickness; yet we believe they
are to be relied on in the main, and that they exhibit
fairly the sickness of that portion of the poor who
habitually seek medical attendance gratuitously. In the
winter quarters of the last four years, these numbers have
been 787, 1126, 856, and 781.
Amongst these were 2 cases of small-pox, 1 of chickenpox,
13 of measles, 3 of scarlatina, 3 of whooping cough,
16 of diarrhoea, 14 of continued fever, 155 of bronchitis
and catarrh, 11 of sore-throat in various forms, besides 2
of diphtheria.
The small-pox appeared in this district first, so far as
we know, at 11, Carrington Mews, May-Fair, about the
17th of October, in a girl aet 17, a pupil teacher of the
Curzon Schools. She was well vaccinated, and the attack
was slight. The second was in the daughter of a milliner
in South Molton Street, who had recently come from
Soho; the disease was very slight, and they denied the
existence of it. These were the 2 cases attended by
public charity, and noticed above. Next we heard of the
fatal case at the Clarendon, and of cases at No. 26, Grosvenor
Market, and No. 6, Carrington Street, at the end
of December. Other cases there doubtless were; but
they occurred in families who naturally prefer to keep
such disagreeable things quiet.
The cases of diphtheria were not fatal; one at No. 8,
Carrington Street, and the other at No. 1, John's Place, in
which house a child died of malignant scarlatina, and most
of the inmates had sore-throats in some form. Sore-throat
is the most variable of maladies in some respects, for it
may be utterly insignificant, or may destroy life in a few
hours ; but we have learned, by experience, that it often
accompanies zymotic disease, and where we hear of one or