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11
WANDSWORTH.
Report on the Sanitary condition of the Parish of Wandsworth,
during the year 1856, by Mr. George E. Nicholas.
TO THE BOARD OF WORKS FOR THE WANDSWORTH DISTRICT.
Gentlemen,
In accordance with your instructions, I have the honour to
present a report of the sanitary condition of this parish during the past
year; and in so doing, I take it to be my duty, while bringing to your
notice the measures which have been adopted for the general improvement
of the public health, to offer such observations on the principles
upon which they have been conducted as may seem advantageous for
practical guidance in the further prosecution of similar proceedings.
As it would be impossible, in a report like this, to lay before you all
the circumstances directly or indirectly a fleeting health, I purpose confining
my remarks to a consideration of those conditions having reference
to the principal sanitary operations of the past year, and which constitute
that formidable array of agents inducing tendency to death, whose
influence is exerted so powerfully and successfully against the healthfulness
of the dwellings of the people. These it will be desirable to
examine in detail in order to ensure a clear recognition of their existence,
and a just appreciation of the relation which they bear to the population
and its mortality and sickness, as well as of the measures which have
been adopted or require to be adopted for their removal or alleviation.
Population.—Rate or Increase—by Births—by Immigration.
The population of this parish, in 1831, was 6,879; in 1841 it was
7,614; and in 1851 it numbered 9,611: so that during the decennial
period, 1831—41 it increased 1.068 per cent, yearly; and during the
similar period, 1841—51 it increased 2.622 per cent, yearly. This rate
of increase exceeds by l-40 per cent, that for all England, and by 0.65
per cent, that of London during the same period. If an increase has
taken place since the year 1851 in the same ratio as during the ten
years preceding it, the population at the end of the past year was 10,871.
The number of births registered during the past year was 351 (165 males
and 186 females.) The excess of births over deaths (correction being
made for the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum, the House of Correction,
St. Peter's Hospital, and the Wandsworth Union, the reason for which