London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Wandsworth 1858

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]

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were treated during the year amongst the families of the Union poor of
this parish, 3 deaths only resulted. These 3 deaths, however, it should
be stated, occurred in localities in which open cesspools, uncovered
ditches, and such like nuisances still exist, and in parts of the sub-district
where there is a great and an acknowledged want of effective sewerage.
The localities considered to be insufficiently drained, and to which the
above remark will more particularly apply, are portions of the Upper
Richmond Road, Spencer Road, Charlewood Road, parts of the Lower
Richmond Road and Windsor Street, Marches Place, and above all the
hamlet of Roehampton. The appended table will show how greatly
needed is a measure of the kind indicated, for the relief of some of the
insufficiently drained localities of this rapidly increasing suburb.
Comparative Mortality from Six of the principal Diseases of the
Zymotic Class, in the Well Drained and Insufficiently Drained
localities of Putney, during 1858.

LocalitiesSmall PoxMeaslesScarlet Fever and DiphtheriaHooping CoughDiarrhœea and DysenteryFever, Typhus, and TyphoidTotals
Well Drained....3......3
Insufficiently Drained....933217
Totals....1233220

It will be seen that Small Pox has happily no place in the above table.
I am pleased in being able to state that this disease has not made its
appearance in this parish for several years past. Since January, 1856,
the period at which I entered on my duties as the Health Officer of this
sub-district, upwards of 500 children and others have received, at my
hands alone, the protection of vaccination; and I have every reason to
believe, judging from the occasional supplies of lymph that have been
obtained of me by my professional brethren, that numbers have been
similarly protected at the hands of the other resident medical practitioners.
This being the case, there are good grounds for believing that but comparatively
few persons remain unprotected in this parish, and that to this
circumstance the exemption so long enjoyed by Putney and Roehampton
from Small Pox is to be mainly attributed.
Table V., Appendix, will show at a glance what has been undertaken
during the year 1858 towards improving the sanitary condition of this
sub-district, by the removal of very many of the causes and aggravants
of disease.
I rejoice to find that sanitation and improved social habits amongst the
poor of this parish are making a parallel progress, and that numbers of
that class are beginning to have no mean appreciation of the advantages
which sanitary supervision is calculated to confer upon them.
My best efforts are being continued in teaching the indigent how to
use and not to abuse these advantages; and I trust I shall, in future
reports, be able to demonstrate still more satisfactorily, that with improved