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season it betokens a sickly winter, and although but few cases have
occurred in this Parish, we must be prepared to see more of it in the
crowded parts occupied by the poor as the colder weather sets in. Experience
has shown that, although this disease breaks out and spreads
under epidemic influences which we little understand, yet that it selects,
above all, those places where persons are most crowded together, where
destitution depresses the powers of resistance, and dirt and foul effluvia
are present to poison the blood. The Fever Hospital in this Parish is
now so full, that the erection of a temporary building for the accommodation
of additional cases is contemplated. If our poor population is to
be kept free from the epidemic, it can only be by the adoption of means
to abate over crowding of their dwellings and improve their physical comfort;
while any individual cases, as they may occur, are removed at once
to the Fever Hospital before they become foci of infection to others. But
while it is my duty to warn you of the proximity of typhus, I must add
that, although of course part of the work of prevention lies with the
Sanitary department of the Vestry, the employers of labour on the one
hand, and those whose charity leads them to visit the poor and relieve
their distress in their homes on the other, will have their share to perform.
It is desirable that all instances of over crowding of poor tenements,
and occupation of unhealthy kitchens as sleeping rooms, should
be communicated to me by any parishioners who come across them.
EDWARD BALLARD, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Offices,
November 2nd, 1863.