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

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Islington 1861

[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 APRIL, 1861.
No. XLIX.
"Were it not that hooping-cough has been increasingly and very
fatally prevalent among children, having carried off no less than 36 of
them within the period of four weeks, the general health of the
pariah has been about as good as the average for April. The
mortality as registered was 237. The wrc-corrected mean for five
years previously being 203, — the corrected number for increased
population, will probably be not far from 232. Within 11, the deaths
registered from hooping-cough this April amount to the total number
registered in the five preceding Aprils taken together, viz., 47. The
number of case3 attended by the Parochial Surgeons was 31; the
numbers in the five previous Aprils being 11, 18, 26, 12, and 11. It
has been, if not twice as prevalent, certainly twice as fatal as it was
in the same period of the year in 1858.
The Mortality Table includes 3 deaths from diphtheria—one being
that of a promising young surgeon in St. Paul's Road, who contracted
the disease in the courageous discharge of his professional
duties.
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