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STPAN 36
St. Pancras, Middlesex.
TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH,
Being the Report for the Year 1879.
TO THE VESTRYMEN OF ST. PANCRAS.
Gentlemen,
A Statistical Report on the Health of St. Pancras must of
necessity depend for accuracy upon an exact knowledge of the
population of the district, but unfortunately this report refers
to a period eight years after the Census was taken, and during
this period many and important changes have taken place in
the parish, the full effect of which, on the population, it is
impossible with certainty to estimate.
The growth of houses in the neighbourhood of Gospel Oak,
and the demolition of houses in the sub-registration district
of Somers Town, are disturbing elements in any estimate of
the population.
It may, however, be well to see in what direction an estimate
leads, and for this purpose I will take the population of
St. Pancras as found at the Census of 1871. It then
amounted to 221,103. In the previous decade it had increased
at the rate of 1.1 per cent. each year, and if this
increase had been continued till 1879, the number would
have amounted to 211,712. Bearing in mind the fact that
this natural increase has been somewhat reduced by the
destruction of houses in Somers Town, it will be more accurate
to take 240,000 as the population of St. Pancras for 1879.
Mr. Firth has, for the purpose of his Municipality Bill,
estimated the population of our Parish, for the year 1880,
at 249,000; but 240,000 will be the figures on which the
calculations of the present Report are based.
The Registrar General's year of 1879 begins on December
29th, 1878, and ends on January 3rd, 1880, thus including
fifty-three weeks, and I have followed the example of my predecessor
in including the births and deaths in this period, for
the purpose of this Report.