London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1892
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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14
The only complete returns are published in the reports of the medical officer of the Local
Government Board, from which the following table is compiled. The figures given are the last which are
available.
Table showing the number of children, per cent, of total births remaining "unaccounted for," including cases postponed, when the Vaccination Returns for the undermentioned years were received.
| Metropolitan Unions. | 1879. | 1880. | 1881. | 1882. | 1883. | 1884. | 1885. | 1886. | 1887. | 1888. | 1889. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bethnal-green | 8.0 | 6.3 | 5.5 | 7.1 | 6.1 | 8.0 | 8.6 | 1.11 | 13.5 | 16.0 | 25.1 |
| Camberwell | 10.0 | 7.1 | 5.2 | 6.0 | 6.4 | 7.0 | 6.8 | 8.4 | 9.4 | 8.4 | 12.5 |
| Chelsea | 7.1 | 5.8 | 51 | 6.7 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 7.2 | 4.8 | 6.0 |
| Fulham | 7.1 | 6.0 | 5.4 | 4.1 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| St. George, Han over-square | 9.6 | 4.8 | 2.3 | 4.4 | 3.1 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| St. George-in-the-East | 7.5 | 7.0 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 3.7 | 4.8 | 5.3 | 6.7 | 7.9 | 6.5 |
| St. Giles and St. George | 12.1 | 10.2 | 11.6 | 9.9 | 11.4 | 11.6 | 11.1 | 12.2 | 14.1 | 17.7 | 22.5 |
| Greenwich | 6.9 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 7.8 | 10.2 | 10.4 | 11.1 | 11.4 | 9.6 | 10.1 | 11.5 |
| Hackney | 6.9 | 6.1 | 4.6 | 6.7 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 8.9 | 12.1 | 18.5 |
| Hampstead | 3.6 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 5.1 | 4.2 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 5.1 |
| Holborn | 7.2 | 68 | 6.2 | 7.6 | 8.5 | 9.7 | 8T | 7.7 | 8.7 | 10.3 | 11.3 |
| Islington | 9.3 | 90 | 8.2 | 80 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 9.8 | 9.5 |
| Kensington | 4.8 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 6.9 | 7.5 |
| Lambeth | 14.3 | 12.1 | 7.6 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 11.1 | 12.6 | 13.3 |
| Lewisham | 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 6.6 |
| City of London | 7.0 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 7.4 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 9.2 |
| Marylebone | 7.8 | 7.5 | 5.1 | 6.8 | 5.5 | 7.3 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.9 | 8.1 |
| Mile-end Old-town | 7.5 | 7.2 | 7.5 | 8.8 | 9.8 | 8.7 | 8.8 | 9.7 | 11.3 | 14.4 | 16.6 |
| St. Olave | 4.1 | 5.0 | 4.1 | 5.9 | 10.0 | 7.3 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 17.7 | 15.0 | 15.4 |
| Paddington | 7.8 | 7.6 | 7.7 | 9.2 | 8.8 | 8.2 | 8.8 | 10.1 | 8.4 | 11.3 | 12.7 |
| St Pancras | 7.8 | 7.2 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 5.2 | 6.1 | 6.9 | 8.7 | 11.5 | 13.2 |
| Poplar | 4.1 | 39 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.0 | 4.9 | 5.7 | 16.9 | 15.1 |
| St. Saviour | 7.0 | 8.0 | 5.7 | 6.7 | 6.0 | 8.7 | 9.1 | 13.1 | 18.9 | 17.1 | 12.4 |
| Shoreditch | 12.8 | 12.2 | 10.3 | 12.0 | 7.6 | 6.5 | 5.6 | 6.3 | 5.6 | 3.7 | 5.5 |
| Stepney | 7.9 | 9.7 | 6.2 | 4.8 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 5.9 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 8.8 |
| Strand | 7.6 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 7.6 | 9.3 | 8.9 | 8.5 | 9.7 | 10.0 | 16.2 |
| Wandsworth and Clapham | 5.5 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 7.1 | 90 | 8.2 | 9.1 | 9.7 | 10.6 | 11.5 | 12.1 |
| Westminster | 5.0 | 6.0 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 6.1 | 5.7 | 6.6 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 4.1 | 12.8 |
| Whitechapel | 2.6 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| Woolwich | 7.9 | 64 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 18 | 22 | 2.2 | 2.9 | 3.5 |
| Total | 7.8 | 7.0 | 5.7 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 7.0 | 7.8 | 9.0 | 10.3 | 11.6 |
Twenty deaths during 1892 attributed to "cowpox and vaccination" were registered in the
Registration County of London, the corrected average being 9.9.
Measles.
Measles caused 3.388 deaths in London in 1892.
The death rates from this disease per 1,000 living during 1892 and previous periods have been as follows—
| 1851-60 | 0.53 | 1881-90 | 0.64 |
| 1861-70 | 0.58 | 1891 | 0.43 |
| 1871-80 | 0.51 | 1892 | 0.79 |
Diagram V. shows the excess and defect of the death rate ol measles in relation to the mean
death rate 1841-92.
The reports of the medical officers of health discuss the neglect to recognise the dangerous
character of this disease, and in several instances the notification of measles is recommended. Thus
the medical officers of St. Giles, St. George-the-Martyr, Clapham, Streatliam and Wandsworth, express
the opinion that notification is desirable with a view to giving increased opportunity for limiting the spread
of the disease. The medical officer of the Strand district writes "The question of the desirability of
adding measles to the list of notifiable diseases was considered by your board [Board of Works of the
Strand District], and your late medical officer gave it as his opinion that 'the suggested addition would be
attended by considerable inconvenience to those whose children may happen to be suffering from this
disorder, to extra expense on the part of your board, and so far as my experience enables me to form an
opinion with very little, if any, real benefit to the community generally.'" The medical officer of
Kensington says, "it remains to be proved that any great advantage would accrue from its addition to
the list."
In May, 1892, the Council received from the clerk of the London School Board a letter, stating
that for some time past it had been the practice of the Board to exclude from their schools children
coming from houses where measles existed. The Board felt, however, that the information upon which
they acted from time to time was very unreliable ; the Board's medical officer had recently been
giving his attention to this matter, and the Board was of opinion that measles should be included
in the list of notifiable diseases set out in section 55 (8) of the Public Health Act of 1891. The
reasons which the Board's medical officer had given for this proposal were as follows—