London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Islington 1859

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Parish of St Mary]

This page requires JavaScript

2
anticipated and than it undoubtedly would have been, had a similar amount of
solar heat operated upon the state of things that existed prior to the sanitary
efforts of the last few years. In 1857, when the mean temperature of July
was 65.20° (three degrees lower) the mortality from diarrhcea and cholera
was 54, only two less than at present. Another cause of the high mortality
is found in the re-kindling of scarlet fever among us; 20 deaths from this
disease have been registered. Five of these occurred among a family of six
children, who were attacked at 7, Mill's Buildings, Kingsland, and who (with
the exception of the baby) all slept together in a small back room. One of
them brought home the disease from a house where she was employed as a
nurse girl and infected the remainder. The disease was of a malignant type,
proving fatal in periods of from 7 to 3 days. It has not spread beyond the
house mentioned. There have been 3 deaths from diphtheria ; one was of a
female aged 90 year. In July, last year, the deaths registered from diphtheria
were 7.

The fallowing table is in continuation of that in the last report :—

Mean Temperature. (Greenwich.)Parish Cases of Diarrhœa and Cholera.Deaths from Diarrhcea and Cholera.
JULY.165618571858185918561857185818591856185718581859
1st Week59.2°59.6°55.9°67.4°1934224738711
2nd ,,57.6°68.0°66.4°71.0°253830760658
3rd „60.1°63.3°62.9°69.0°209427118420520
4th „64.2°65.6°59.6o67.0°3188291083201317
Total60.2°65.3°61.2°68.6°9525410834910543056

Seventeen hundred and thirteen new cases of sickness were registered by
the parochial surgeons and at the institutions from which I receive returns.
They embrace 26 cases of scarlet fever and 465 of various forms of bowel
complaints, of which 5 were cases of summer cholera.
Eighty-six cases of small-pox were admitted into the small-pox hospital
during July; making a total of 625 since the commencement of the year.
EDWARD BALLARD, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
42, Myddelton Square,
August 4th, 1859.