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STPAN 20
EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH,
FOB THE YEAR 1863.
TO THE VESTRY OF ST. PANCRAS.
Gentlemen,
The season has arrived when it is my duty to lay before you
a Report for the year 1863.
The Tables appended to this Report shew that the deaths in St. Pancras
during 53 weeks, which ended on the 2nd January, 1864, including those in
the Strand Union, numbered 4854. After deducting 108, which was the
number of persons who died in the Strand Union "Workhouse, the result is 4746;
to obtain the exact number of deaths which occurred in the year 1863, 89 must
be subtracted, to allow for deaths occurring in 1862, which were registered in
the 53 weeks mentioned, and 16 added for deaths occurring in 1863, which
were registered in 1864. After making these corrections, the number obtained
is 4673, which may be taken as indicating most nearly the mortality of last
year.* To determine the death-rate, it is necessary in the next place to
ascertain the probable population of St. Pancras in the middle of the year 1863.
At the census in April, 1861, the population numbered 198,788, it is now
no doubt very much higher than this. If we assume that the population has
increased in the same ratio per annum as it did between 1851 and 1861, we
get a population for 1863 of 205,802, which may be adopted as a probable
* A still further correction would be required to determine what exact number of deaths should
be set to the account of St. Pancras. There were 154 persons who died in the University College
and Royal Free Hospitals, who came shortly before death from other districts—these should be
deducted; and on the other hand, a number of St. Pancras people went to hospitals in adjoining
parishes, and died there—these cannot be fully ascertained, but through the kindness of Dr.
Buchanan, I am in possession of the figures obtained from the most important hospitals in which
St. Pancras people are likely to have died. In King's College Hospital there were 17 such
deaths, in Middlesex 53, in the Hospital for Sick Children 8, in St. Bartholomew's Hospital 13,
in the London Fever Hospital 23, and in the Small Pox Hospital 27. The total thus obtained is
141; if these were all the St. Pancras people who died out of the parish, the corrected net
mortality would be 4660, instead of 4673.