Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Parish of St Mary]
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deaths occurred, three of them tuberculous (one being consumption) ; the fourth
death was from small pox of a highly malignant petechial or putrid type.
From time to time, during the past eight years, these courts have been visited
and reported upon by myself to the Sanitary Committee, and, bad as they are now,
their condition is not so bad as they were when first I took them in hand; there is
less overcrowding, a better supply of water to most of them, and some improvements
have been made in the privies, though by no means all that ought to have been made.
It is true that the powers conferred by the Nuisances' Removal Act are not so complete
as one might desire when coping with such aggravated nuisances as are presented
by these courts, but I do not think that we have yet put this Statute to all the use it
is capable of. Landlords of such property as this will rarely do anything out of consideration
for the health or lives of their tenants; compulsion alone will extort
amendments. What is needed here is the closure of the fatal houses until made fit
for human habitation, and this is a proceeding which the Justices properly enough
are unwilling to direct, except where the demonstration of unhealthiness is most
convincing. I cannot but think you will consider that, in these instances, the demonstration
requisite for such action is now complete.
CAUSES OF DEATH.
6. Table I shows the causes of death of 3,854 persons who died in the Parish during
the 53 weeks. Referring to this Table for such particulars as may be desired, I
shall, on this occasion, only enter at length upon the subject of the two zymotic
maladies whose prevalence has chiefly characterised the year.
The cases occurred and deaths were registered, month by month, as follows—
Cases Returned. | Deaths Registered. | |
---|---|---|
January | 25 | 9 |
February | 32 | 3 |
March | 40 | 13 |
April | 60 | 10 |
May | 134 | 15 |
Juno | 105 | 23 |
July | 25 | 4 |
August | 31 | 7 |
September | 17 | 13 |
October | 16 | 5 |
November | 10 | 3 |
December | 14 | 3 |
509 | 108 |
The disease then extended gradually among our population during the four first
months of the year, burst out into its chief severity in May, continued to prevail
during June, and then in July suddenly became reduced, so that the number of cases