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It thus appears that the winter was cold, the rainfall was unusually small,
and there was much less wind than usual. All these three circumstances had
no doubt, an unfavourable influence on the health of London. Other
atmospheric influences, which at present we can very imperfectly estimate,
were also in operation.
In a Table appended to this Report, I have taken some streets and ascertained
the number of deaths during the year, comparing this number with the
population of the streets.
Several of these require special notice. In Midford Place, a court with only
eight houses, occupied by about 200 people, mostly Irish, there were 8 deaths,
which is a death-rate of 39.4 per thousand; in Holbrook Court, with five
houses and 66 people, there were 3 deaths, a rate of mortality equal to 45 per
thousand; in Drapers Place, the death-rate per thousand was nearly 32; in
Henry Street, Hampstead Road, it was 39; in Pancras Square it was only 14;
in Compton Place it was nearly 34; in Poplar Place, 56 ; in Ashby Street,
although there has been Typhus Fever epidemic, the deaths were only 8 in a
population of 300, or at the rate of nearly 27 per thousand. The death-rate
amongst children under five years of age was very high in some of those places,
as in Thornley Place, where it was in the proportion of 40 to every thousand
persons living ; iu Henry Street, where it was 26.6 per thousand, in Poplar
Place where it was 24 per thousand, and Mary Place, 22.5 per thousand. In
the Parish at large it was a little less than 11 per thousand. These results
show what might be expected, that some streets are much more unhealthy than
others ; the statistics of one year in a small population must not be considered
as an absolutely reliable gauge of the health of a place ; but when a similar
result is obtained year after year, it is then quite fair to regard the rate of
mortality as an indication of its sanitary condition.
SANITARY WORKS.
During the year ending the 31st March, 1865, the following improvements
were carried out by order of the Sanitary Committee, under my superintendence
and that of the Inspectors:—
New drains were constructed in 90 houses.
New traps were furnished to 405 drains.
The drainage was improved in 97 houses.
In 50 houses cesspools were abolished.
75 cesspools were emptied.
New pans, traps, and water were supplied to 130 closets.
16 new water closets were erected.
Water was laid on to 118 closets.
33 new dust-bins were erected.
21 dust-bins were repaired.
The paving of yards or cellars were improved in 97 houses.
103 houses were cleansed and whitewashed.
Overcrowding was abated in 15 houses.