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18
PUTNEY AND
ROEHAMPTON
Population in 1851, 5,280
Area in Acres 2,176
SEX
AGE
SOCIAL POSITION
DISEASES
And other causes of death.
Males
Females
Total
Under 1 year
From 1 to 5 years
From 5 to 10 years
Under 20 years including
all under 10 years
At 20, and under40 years
of age
At 40, and under 60 years
of age
At 60, and under 80 years
of age
80 years and upwards
Nobility and Gentry
Professional Class, Merchants
Bankers, &c.
Middle and TradingClass,
Shopmen, Clerks, &c.
Industrial and Labouring
Classes
1. Small Pox
2. Measles
3. Scarlatina and Malignant
Diseases of the 5 7 12.. 5 411 1 1 2 9
Throat
4 Hooping Cough 3 3 33 1 2
5. Diarrhoea and Dysentery 1 2 3 1 11 1 1 3
6. Cholera
7. Fever 1 1 2 2 2 1 1
8. Erysipelas 1 1 1 1
9. Puerperal Fever
10. Lung Disease., except Phthisis 3 4 3 5 7 1 6 10
11. Phthisis 6 6 12 1 1 6 5 8 4
12. Hydrocephalus, Atrophy,
Scrofula, & Con vnlsions of Children 10 1424 16 8 24 8 1
13. Other Diseases 16 16 32 2 3 1 6 3 10 10 3 2 1 14 15
14. Violence, Privation,and Premature Birth8 4 10 6 8
Total, 60 58 118 27 24 5 59 14 24 18 3 4 42 69
By a further examination of the above table, it will be seen that the
greatest number of deaths during the year resulted from diseases of the
respiratory organs. Inclusive of phthisis, the mortality from this class
of maladies was as high as 31, or just ¼th of the whole, if the deaths
from old age and accident are deducted from the general total.
But the most striking, and at the same time the most melancholy
feature of the table referred to (and it is unfortunately found to be the
same in every parish of the district, and in every district of the metropolis)
is the excessive number of deaths shown to have occurred amongst
children under 10 years of age. This excess, I regret to say, is found to
amount in this sub-district to very nearly half of the entire mortality,
the deaths under 1 year being as many as 27, and at all other ages
under 10, 29!
In such a sub-district as Putney, where the great majority of mothers
amongst the industrial classes are employed in the fields and market
gardens, or as assistants in the laundries which abound in the parish,
this great mortality amongst children may be mainly accounted for by
the fact of numbers of them being either too early weaned, or most
insufficiently supplied with their natural sustenance. Very many infants
thus left to the care and nurture of indifferent persons, to allow the
mothers themselves to make the very most of their labour, die prematurely
from sheer neglect, and this I fear is an increasing evil, and one
for which it will be most difficult to find a remedy.*
* From what I have myself seen of the manner of conducting one of those truly
excellent establishments called " La Crêche," in Paris, in which infants of the poor,