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REPORT.
To the Board of Works for the Wandsworth District.
Gentlemen,
We have the honour to present the following Report on the
sanitary state of the Wandsworth District during the year 1859.
It is arranged in accordance with your instructions, upon the plan heretofore
adopted as the means best calculated for bringing to your knowledge the
various local conditions affecting the public health which require to be
specially dealt with, as well as for affording that information which is necessary
for your guidance in the prosecution of measures of general application.
It contains, therefore, as usual, separate communications from your Medical
Officers of Health, having reference to their respective sub-districts, which are
prefaced by a review of the principal facts relating to the health of the entire
district. For the illustration of both of these, tables of the Statistics of
mortality and sickness, epidemic disease, meteorology, &c., are appended to
the end of the Report, together with a summary of the sanitary operations
which have been earned out during the year.
We are sorry to have to record that the health of the district was not in
so satisfactory a condition during the past as during the three preceding years,
and that this result was due to the greater prevalence of those epidemic diseases
chiefly effecting the young, which it is the especial object of sanitation to
diminish and prevent.
It is trusted that this result will not be accepted as favouring that misty
prejudice—engendered by ignorance and fostered by ancient tradition, which is
now happily becoming fast dissipated by the light of modern knowledge, but
which, half-admitted, still occasionally exists—in favour of the opinion that
these diseases are the natural heritage of childhood, and as such will prevail in
spite of all the endeavours of the sanitarian to the contrary.
For it is matter of fact that they take up their permanent abode only
where hospitality is afforded them, and, like parasites, drop away when their
sustenance is withdrawn; and your Medical Officers, firm in the belief of the
truths of science, which has long since established the preventibility of these
diseases, and knowing that the benefits derivable from sanitarian agency can
only be realized by slow degrees and in the course of time; seeing, moreover,
very appreciable evidence of the good effects which have already been derived
from the operations of your Board, they look upon the foregoing result (which
was not exceptional, but common to the whole metropolis), as evidence only
of the necessity for renewed and persevering exertions.
We have the honour to remain,
Gentlemen,
Your very obedient Servants,
THE MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH
of the wandsworth district.