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with precision, a portion of it can ; and with this view I applied, on my appointment
as your Health Officer, for permission to examine the weekly return of cases of disease,
which came under the notice of the medical gentlemen appointed to attend to the
poor in the Workhouse, and to the out-door paupers. On this, as on every subsequent
occasion, when it has been necessary for me to request the aid of the Board of
Trustees, my application was met by immediate acquiescence. I should, indeed, be
failing in my duty, were I to omit my acknowledgments and thanks for their very
valuable assistance; as also the obligation I am under to all the parochial medical
officers for their courtesy and co-operation. I am this year, enabled to furnish a
a complete statement of the number of cases of disease which have been attended by
these gentlemen ; and in a Table (p. 17) have furnished the particulars, and endeavoured
to exhibit the proportion of all cases which each of the more important forms of
disease furnished in each of the parochial medical districts. But it must not be
forgotten, that this is the sickness among the very poor. Each class of society suffers
not alike from the various forms of disease; we should be wrong in arguing from this
table as to the extent to which each malady or group of maladies has affected those in
comfortable circumstances ; although we may infer that diseases, prevalent in the one
class, have been also prevalent to some, though not to the same degree, in the other
class. During a portion of the year I have also been favoured by a weekly return
from the Holloway and North Islington Dispensary, kindly compiled with much care,
and forwarded with great regularity by their very praiseworthy resident officer, Mr.
Whittingham. I regret that, as the details do not embrace the whole year, I cannot
avail myself of them in the present Report. I have also received a weekly statement
from Dr. Scurrah, in respect of the London Fever Hospital. If I could obtain a
similar statement from the oldest medical charity in the parish—the Islington Dispensary—I
should be able to form a tolerably complete return of the sickness amongst the
poor. I regret to say, however, that no book or other record is kept at that Institution,
wherein the diseases of the patients are entered; and the authorities there have
refused to furnish me with any information as to the cases of disease attended during
the year on behalf of that Institution.
The number of cases attended on behalf of the parish by the medical officers of the
workhouse and Infant poorhouse, and by the gentlemen who have the out-door
paupers in their charge, was 9,432, viz. 749 at the workhouse, 115 at the Infant poorhouse,
and 8,568 out of doors. The mortality among the last-mentioned patients, who,
of course, were from those who form the poorest of our population, was 259, or 1 in
33 cases. At the Holloway and North Islington Dispensary, in addition to 503 cases
left over from the previous year, there have been admitted between the 1st of January
and 31st December, 6,649 patients more or less incapacitated by illness.* Of these 79
died, or 1 in 84 cases. The lower mortality must be attributed to the fact, that
although there are many very poor persons attended, yet a very large number are so
situated as to enjoy some of the comforts of life, although unable to meet the accidental
expenses which sickness occasions. This mortality seems somewhat small for a Dispensary,
inasmuch as it appears that during the year ending March, 1856, the mortality
was 1 in 73, and in that ending March, 1857, it was 1 in 72 admissions. At the
Islington Dispensary it appears also from the last published report, that during the
whole period of its existence (36 years) 2,275 patients have died out of 161,700
admitted, which also gives a close approximation to the same proportion, viz. 1 in 71
cases.
19. There are a few points with regard to the particulars furnished in Table VII.
upon which I wish to make a few remarks.
1.° As to the sickness generally.—It will be observed that about one in every five
cases was an instance of a disease belonging to the zymotic class, and about
another fifth of all the cases were instances of diseases of the organs of respiration,
mostly of an acute character.
*This does not include: several hundreds of casual cases.