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3
[1925
registered, was 143. It was within this period that the first Medical Officer of
Helth was appointed by the Vestry. In 18G1-1870 the death-rate was 24.6, and
the infant mortality rate to 153. The climax was reached during this period,
normaly in the year 1866, with the high death-rate of 28. This was attributable
to the epidemic of cholera, and choleric diarrhoea accounted for 245 deaths. There
was also a large number of deaths from smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, typhoid, phthisis, and respiratory diseases and heart disease. The
rate was added to by diseases of nutrition among infants, bad feeding, and so on.
The infant mortality rate was 170 in 1866.
It is interesting to recall at this stage seeing the occasional occurrence of
smallpox even to-day, some of the smallpox outbreaks of those times. In 1863,
there were in Islington 509 cases of smallpox and 108 deaths; in 1866, 670 cases,
land 67 deaths; in 1871, no fewer than 1,429 cases and 386 deaths; in 1876, 367
cases and 69 deaths; 1877, 633 cases and 112 deaths; in 1884, 608 and 97 deaths;
and in 1855, 659 cases and 125 deaths.
During the years 1862-1880 measles and scarlet fever were very prevalent
and much more fatal than at the present time, these diseases now being much less
virulent. The lessening of the death-rates of diphtheria was largely due to the
introduction of the anti-toxin treatment.
As regards the removal of house refuse compared with olden times, considerable progress has been made. It is to such matters and to the enforcement of the
Public Health enactments that one ascribes the first stage in improvement of
health in populous areas. There is, of course, to be added the spread of knowledge in these matters. The removal of house refuse was performed by contractors during the years 1856-1876. The system was that the district was
divided into wards and there was a separate contract for a certain number of
wards, and the contractor was supposed to remove the dust in that district, and
if this were not done complaints were made. In the year 1876, the number of
complaining applications for removal reached a total of 36,867. By way of
contrast, and to show the efficiency with which the corporation does its work,
there were in the year 1925 only 21 applications.
The growth of the Public Health Department and its work has been due,
more particularly since the formation of the Metropolitan Borough, to the large
increases under the Statutes dealing with Public Health Matters, and the subsequent Orders under the Local Government Board, and latterly, the Ministry of
Health. Thus the Notification of Infectious Diseases Act came into operation in
1889. There was a great deal of sanitary legislation in 1890. The Customs and
Inland Revenue Act, since superseded, required the inspection of houses for
exemption from taxation. The Housing of the Working Classes Act, the Working
Classes Dwellings Act, the Public Heailth Amendment Act, and the Infectious
Diseases Prevention Act were all in that year. It was, however, in 1891, that
London obtained a special Health Act consolidating the old sanitary Acts.
In 1894, still under the Vestry, the disinfecting chamber was erected; the
disinfecting work was formerly done by contract. In 1907-8 the Notification of
Births Act gave a fillip to child welfare work.
The Borough of Islington stands well to the fore in the assistance received
from voluntary organisations in respect of the care of infants. There are four