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five weeks at the rate of 38 per week; whilst older persons died in the three
months mentioned at a weekly rate of 45, and during the last five weeks only
at the rate of 38. Above the age of 60, persons died in the three Spring
months at a weekly rate of 17, and in July at a rate of only 11.
One probable cause of the very young suffering more than the older from
hot weather is, that they are confined very much to the house, and are thus
subjected without intermission to the evils of defective ventilation and foul
drainage, from which the other members of the family may escape for some
hours during the day. But, in addition to this, it must be remembered that
attacks which would only lay aside adults for a few days are sufficient to destroy
the lives of delicate infants; and although deaths of adults from diarrhoea have
been rare, yet the disease has been very prevalent in persons of all ages. Of
other zymotic diseases, hooping cough caused 13 deaths, scarlatina and malignant
sore throat 11, low fever 10 (or including one death in the Fever Hospital
11), measles 4, and small pox 3.
During the month small pox has been very extensively prevalent in Somers
Town (more than 50 cases having come to my knowledge); but happily it has
proved fatal in only three instances, and these were persons not vaccinated.
Notices have been issued during the month advising the inhabitants what means
should be adopted to check the spread of the disease, and it is believed that thoy
have proved very useful. Before the introduction of vaccination small pox was
fatal to about a third of all those attacked, whilst it fearfully mutilated or
permanently impaired the health of those who were not destroyed. At the
present time, where vaccination has been properly performed, it is very rare to
see small pox occur, and still more so to cause death, or even permanent disfigurement
or impairment of health. It is not perhaps too much to hope, that
if vaccination were universal, the disease would, in the coursc of years, become
quite unknown.
During July, there were sent from this parish to the Fever Hospital seven
persons suffering from typhus fever; they were all members of one family, and
occupied a small ill-ventilated house in Brill-place. The disease appears to have
been imported by a woman living in Islington parish; its development was
very much promoted by the closeness of the house, and the dirty habits of the
inmates. The house has been entirely evacuated, and thoroughly cleansed, and
the means of ventilation improved.
In accordance with your instructions, a man in Prince of "Wales's Court,
Hampstead Road, was summoned to the Police Court for overcrowding a house
containing two small rooms each, 12 feet square and about feet high. There
were 5 adults in each room, members of different families, and in the lower
room there were two dogs and forty or fifty baskets of fruit and vegetables.
The house was not provided with any privy or water-closet. The Magistrate
inflicted a fine on the man of 40s., or in default a month's imprisonment.
Amongst the deaths registered in this Report are seven of persons killed by
the falling of three houses in Tottenham-court-road, the account of which is
probably fresh in the memory of all.
One man died in the "Workhouse of inflammation of the lungs, which
is said to have been caused by the inhalation of gases from the soil of a gas
works at Greenwich, where he was working at the construction of a wharf
frontage. As I mentioned last month, the refuse products obtained in the
manufacture of gas gives rise to most offensive and noxious emanations, and the
very utmost care should be enforced to reduce these effects to a minimum. There
is not sufficient caution used to prevent the saturation of the soil with the
soakings from these products, and thus even the surface water which comes from
gas works is very offensive, and gives rise to a large quantity of noxious gases.
On Saturday last, a butcher, named Collins, was fined £5 at the Clerkenwell
Police Court for continuing to kill in an area not licensed as a slaughterhouse,
after repeated warnings by the Inspector of Nuisances.