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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1858
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Parish of St Mary]
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REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OF SAINT MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR DECEMBER, 1858.
No. XXI.
With the exception of the 6th of January, the 23d and 24th of November were the coldest days in 1858. How very unseasonable was this depression of temperature, is shown in the following tabular statement:—
| Temperature. (Greenwich.) | Adopted mean temperature of same day in 42 years. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1858. | Highest. | Lowest. | Mean. | |||
| Jan. 6 | 29.8° | 20.9° | 25.4° | 36.0° | ||
| Nov. 23 | 34.0° | 21.0° | 26.4° | 41.4° | ||
| Nov. 24 | 30.5° | 20.5° | 26.5° | 41.0° | ||
It was accompanied by sickness and mortality, such as the greater but more
seasonable cold of the early weeks of January failed to call forth. I have
already mentioned (Report for November) that the registered deaths in the
last week of November were 73. I find that the number of persons that
actually died that week was 82. Notwithstanding the abatement of the cold,
the injurious operation of this inclement weather on the public health did not
subside for several weeks ; hence, in the five weeks which terminated on January
1st, 1859, the registered mortality in Islington attained the high number
of 364, no approach to which will be found during any of the twenty months
over which these Reports have extended. The registered mortality of January
1856 was 232, and that of 1857, 286. The number of persons who actually
died in the week ending December 4 th, was 92, and on that ending December
11th, 78. On referring to my Annual Tables, it will be found, that the deaths
which took place in the two first weeks of December, 1856, were 54 and 37,
and in the corresponding weeks of 1857, they were 55 and 68.