London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Wandsworth 1881
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]
This page requires JavaScript
Epidemic Diseases—their prevalence and fatality.—
The following table shows the deaths which have resulted from the seven principal Epidemic Diseases during the past and ten preceding years, and the relation which they bore to the deaths from all causes:—
| Years. | Small Pox. | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Diphtheria. | Whooping Cough | Cholera. | Diarrhœa | Fevor—Typhus and Typhoid. | Total Deaths from Epidemics. | Total Deaths from all causes. | Per centage of deaths from Epidemics to deaths from all causes. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1871 | 14 | 31 | 23 | 11 | ... | 21 | 3 | 103 | 453 | 22.7 | |
| 1872 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 13 | ... | 20 | 4 | 47 | 365 | 12.8 |
| 1873 | ... | 3 | 8 | 22 | 7 | 44 | 433 | 10.1 | |||
| 1874 | ... | 14 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 5 | 52 | 453 | 11.5 | ||
| 1875 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 14 | 17 | 5 | 46 | 420 | 10.9 | |
| 1876 | 1 | 17 | 12 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 16 | 12 | 71 | 461 | 15.4 |
| 1877 | 21 | 11 | 16 | 9 | 57 | 384 | 14.8 | ||||
| 1878 | ... | 2 | 6 | ... | 19 | 3 | 38 | 422 | 9.0 | ||
| 1879 | 1 | 16 | 15 | 44 | ... | 7 | 8 | 92 | 516 | 17.8 | |
| 1880 | 9 | 24 | 15 | ... | 20 | 6 | 78 | 484 | 16.1 | ||
| 1881 | 9 | 5 | 19 | 12 | ... | 19 | 4 | 69 | 507 | 13.0 |
Notwithstanding the extensive prevalence of Smallpox
and Scarlet-fever, 1lie number of deaths from the
entire class of these diseases was less by nearly a tenth
part than the average number of the past ten years corrected
for increase of population.
Small-pox.—Small-pox, which prevailed extensively
during the first nine months of the year, was the most
prevalent and the most fatal of the class; although 9
deaths only are recorded in the Table, 8 deaths occurred
in the Metropolitan Asylum District Hospitals amongst
the patients (39), sent there from this parish for treatment.
But for the prompt isolation of patients by
removal to hospital, the disinfection of houses by sulphur
fumigation, and especially re-vaccination, which was
extensively resorted to by all classes, it would be a