London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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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 1861
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Parish of St Mary]
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streets entering into this enumeration the mortality was last year much higher than I
have stated. Thus in Nel on Place, Nelson Buildings, and Nelson Cottages, City
Road, it was at the rate of 187* per 1000; in Halton Place, 161 per 1000; in Newhall
Street, 140 per 1000; in Albany Place, Queen's Road, 173 per 1000; in Bemerton
Street, 106 per 1000; in Clayton Street, 112 per 1000 of those living under 5 years
of age.
There is another way of regarding this mortality, we may compare it with the
number of families in the several districts.
| Districts. | Deaths under Five Years. | No. of Families to each Infint Death. | Districts. | Deaths under Five Years. | 1 No. of Families to each Infant Death. | Districts. | Deaths under Fire Years. | No. of Families to each Infant Death. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Probably now, when we consider that the infant population of some of the lowest
streets I could select formed only 20 per cent, of the whole, and that of the entire
Parish, it is most likely, does not differ much in per centage from what it was in 1851;
that in no families, whatever their station, are children usually sent from home under
five years of age ; and moreover, that many of the circumstances which influence the
health of adults in such different degrees in the different social grades are not operative
in the case of infants; this table is to some extent trustworthy, as indicating differences
of sanitary condition in the several districts, or at any rate, among the districts in the
same group. Thus, we have at the two extremes, Hornsey Rise presenting us with
only one infant death in every 94.6 families, and the Irish courts showing one in every
127 families, and Balls Pond in every 12.9 families. In the first group we have the
infant deaths ranging from one death in 94.6 to one in 25 families, with a mean of one
in every 36.3 families; in the second group from one in every 55.6 to one in every
17.4 families, with a mean of one in every 29.2 families; and in the third group,
ranging from one in every 27.8 to one in every 12.7 families, with a mean of one in
every 19 3 families; and it is to be recollected that it is home conditions which, above
The continuance of such a death rate as this would involve the almost entire extinction of the
rising generation in the course of five years; or, in other words, that there would he almost no increase
of population by the births occurring there.