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from " want of breast milk"—three in Islington Workhouse between the 10th of
October and the 2nd of November. The proportion of mothers who cannot suckle
their infants, if they choose, is not 4 in 67. Ten, or more than one-sixth, of those
under 2 years died in "convulsions!" Again a large proportion. Brain symptoms,
which thus terminate, and may thus be registered, arise from other besides natural causes.
Ten were downright murdered, one having had its throat cut; one was permitted to
bleed to death from the navel; three died from venereal contamination.
SANITARY WORK OF THE YEAR.
13. Table VI. is a summary of the house inspections made, and the amendments
effected in dwelling-houses during the year ending March 25, 1861. It does not
however, include all the work carried out under the superintendence of your Sanitary
Officers, as the removal of offensive and injurious accumulations of various kinds, the
discontinuance of the use of underground sleeping-rooms, and the lessening, after
notice from the office, of the number of inhabitants in various overcrowded houses.
Frequently during the year, and especially in the summer, fruit, fish, and meat, in a
state unfit for food, has been seized and destroyed. The filthy and unwholesome
state of many of the stable and cab yards in the Parish, to the effluvia from which on
several occasions I have seen good reason to attribute fatal disease in their vicinity,
has induced me to undertake a systematic inquiry in relation to them. In the
West Sub-district 66 stables have been inspected, and in the East eighty. Two very
unhealthy cow-sheds have been done away with, one situated in George's Place, which
I referred to in my 34th Monthly Report, and another (after summoning the owner)
in the Lower Road. Prior to the annual licencing in October 52 slaughter-houses
were inspected in the West Sub-district, two of which were opposed ; the licences to
those two were refused by the Magistrates. In the East Sub-district the number of
slaughter-houses inspected and licensed was 59.
I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,
Your very obedient Servant,
EDWARD BALLARD, M.D., M.R.C.P., etc.
Vestry Offices, Medical Officer of Health.
May 10M, 1861.
Postscript.— Since the above was written, the total population of the Parish, as
ascertained by the recent census, has (subject to revision) been made known. It
amounted to 155,291. The ten years just elapsed have consequently added to our
numbers 59,962 persons. This is an increase at the rate of 5 per cent, each year,
upon the population of the preceding one. Assuming this rate to have been uniform
through the ten years, the population of each may be readily calculated in the same
way as the accumulation of capital at compound interest.