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MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT,
For the Year 1858.
To the Vicar, Churchwardens, and Vestrymen of
St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Gentlemen,
Three years having elapsed since the Metropolis
Local Management Act came into operation, the time
has arrived when some general conclusions may be
reached in relation to its influence on the public health.
I have drawn un some tables, from which I think we
may infer several conclusions of great importance. The
Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is not so healthy as
from its position on a soil of gravel, its elevation above
the bed of the river—affording great facilities for
drainage, and other advantages—would have led us to
expect. Our death rate for an average of years has
been 24 in 1000. The number of our parishioners
dying in all the Hospitals of London has been ascertained
to be about 40 in the year; so that it will be
fair to deduct this number from the total deaths in
Charing Cross Hospital. The result will be that we
had in the whole parish, in the year 1856, 561 deaths,
in 1857, 606, and in 1858, 593, making the respective
death rates of these years 22.8, 24.5, 22.3, the average
for 3 years being 23.5 in 1000. I shall compare these
numbers with the mortality of other districts, and then