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MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT,
For the Year 1859.
To the Vicar, Churchwardens, and Vestrymen of
the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Gentlemen,
I have the honor to present you with my Fourth
Annual Report on the State of the Health of the
Parish. In the four years which have elapsed since
the Metropolis Management Act came into operation,
the number of deaths has been as follows:—in 1856,
598: in 1857, 658: in 1858 593: in 1859, 603.
The year 1856 was a very healthy year, and the whole
metropolis participated in great exemption from disease;
the three following years have not been so favourable to
health, as will appear from the following numbers, showing
the deaths in the whole metropolis for the four years.
In 1856, 57,274: in 1857, 59,103: in 1858, 61,578:
in 1859, 60,141. We must bear in mind, that the
whole metropolis is a very increasing population, while
a restricted district, like St. Martin's, must, if it increases
at all, do so in a much smaller ratio.
The number of births during the year 1859 has been
630; in the year 1857 we had in the parish 646 births,
being less than the number of deaths by 12.
The population of so central a district as St. Martin's