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

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Hanover Square 1861

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

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and for every 5 born in the Parish 1 infant has died.
No matter what the disease be, if the mortality from it
be high, the victims will be children of the working
classes. We repeatedly bring this matter forward from
the conviction that it is hopeless to expect much improvement
unless the moral tone of the people be raised. The
9 infants who died of want of breast-milk and the 28
who died of diarrhoea were sacrificed through poverty
and mismanagement, which we have no power to counteract.
Measles proved fatal in eight cases, 1 of them that of
a woman of 70, scarlatina in 16, diphtherite in 3, and
typhus in 6, 14 children died of water in the head, 10
of convulsions, 8 of teething and 12 of atrophy and
debility.
We generally notice the accidental deaths as they
are sure to have a moral. A child of one year was
scalded by a bason of bread-and-milk, which he pulled
over himself from a table; a lady was burned by her
sleeve catching fire from a candle; and a child was scalded
by falling into a tub of hot water on the floor. Moreover,
two dead infants were found in the streets.
The mortality from scarlatina was constantly on the
increase during the Quarter. There were 2 deaths in
July, 6 in August, and 8 in September. An account of
the houses in which the deaths happened and of the
measures adopted in consequence was laid before the
Sanitary Committee.
In the Hanover and May-fair Sub-Districts the quantity
of sickness was great, for 999 persons were entered
as patients by the Parochial and Dispensary Medical
Officers. Amongst them three were affected with well
marked Asiatic cholera, happily not fatal. There were
271 cases of diarrhoea, and only 64 of catarrh. Of the
diarrhoea patients one-half were applicants for casual