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6
the summary though scarcely decent mode of throwing it
away—or that the undertaker did so. We think that
these matters ought to be made known, in order that
measures may be taken, if it should be desirable, for
lessening this public scandal.
The sickness. In the Hanover and May-fair Sub-districts,
the number of patients which appears in the books
of the Medical Officer of the Workhouse, and of the Dispensary,
Mount-street, and of the Parochial Medical
Officers, is 983.
Amongst them were 1 case of chicken-pox, 9 of
measles, 3 of scarlatina, 16 of whooping-coughs, 168 of
diarrhoea, 27 of fevers, 75 of bronchitis, 2 of diphtheria,
1 of pleurisy, and 2 of pneumonia.
On the whole it cannot be said that there has been much
sickness amongst the poorer population, considering their
mode of life and crowded habitations. Nevertheless our
experience shews constantly that wherever an unusual
number of cases of sickness occurs, there is ground for a
visitation. Perhaps a first visit discovers nothing particularly
wrong: nothing beyond the ordinary dinginess
of a poor house. But subsequent visits occasioned by
fresh cases of illness, if they do not discover a serious
nuisance, may either induce the poor tenants to shift their
quarters, or may induce the house-owner to cause the
house to be cleansed or otherwise improved in a way
which we could not attain by legal compulsion.
For instance, there is a house in Robert-street, Grosvenor-square,
containing 11 families. In the week ending
3rd May, we learn of a case of diphtheria; 28th June,
case of sore throat, and one of diarrhoea; 5th July, case
of diarrhoea; 19th, case of sore throat, and one of debility
; August 2nd, case of dyspepsia; September 7th, two
cases of diarrhoea. The radical defect of this house was