London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1896

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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49
fatal illness he had been engaged on a " drainage job," but it seems that he was not actually
brought in contact with any sewage material. On July 24th he ate a pennyworth of gooseberries.
He is not known to have eaten any shellfish.
A post-mortem examination was made on July 29th. The left ventricle of the heart
was found to be hypertrophied, and the kidneys were found to be somewhat enlarged, capsule
readily separable, cortex very pale, medulla injected. The small intestines contained a little
fluid having the appearance of a mixture of milk and mucus. The stomach contained a
number of gooseberry skins. A piece of the ileum was taken to Dr. Klein, who obtained no
evidence that the case was one of Asiatic cholera.
(iii.) M.O.,maleaged 40, a Danish seaman arrived in the s.s. Inverness at the mouth
of the Thames about the end of July. He was suffering at the time from headache and was
feverish. A second sailor was, moreover, affected in a similar manner. The vessel was
inspected by the port medical officer on her arrival on August 1st, and the two men were
found to be suffering from what was regarded as " malarial fever." The vessel came up to
London, and on August 2nd M.O. applied at the Greenwich hospital for treatment. He
returned to his ship, and was found dead in his bunk on the morning of August 6th. An
inquest was held on August 7th. when the captain of the Inverness, a seaman, and a medical
man who had made the post-mortem examination, gave evidence. The jury found the death
was due to English cholera, and the same evening the case was notified to the medical officer
of health of Plumstead. It was ascertained from the deputy coroner who had held the inquest
that M. 0. had joined the Inverness on May 19th at Barry, near Cardiff, and it was further
ascertained that the vessel left Barry for Cape Verde and Savannah on May 22nd, and left
Savannah for London on July 12th. A portion of ileum, which had been preserved at the
post-mortem examination, was obtained, and taken to Dr. Klein, who reported that he found
no evidence that the case wa3 one of Asiatic cholera.
Erysipelas.
The deaths attributed to erysipelas in the registration County of London in 1896 numbered 207
the corrected annual average of the preceding ten years being 280.

I he number of cases notified and the number of deaths registered in the registration county of London during the last six years have been as follows—

Year.Cases.Case rate per 1,000 living.Deaths.1Death rate per 1,000 living.
18914,7641.13214.05
18926,9341.63292.07
18939,7002.26424.10
18946,0801.40221.05
18955,6601.30179.04
18966.4361.43207.05

The case rate and death rate were therefore greater than the rates of the preceding year.

The number of cases notified and the case rate of each district in 1896, together with the mean case rate of the period 1891-5 are given in the following table-

Sanitary district.Cases, 1896.Case rate per 1,000 living.Sanitary district.Cases, 1896.Case rate per 1,000 living.
1891-95.1896.1891-95.1896.
Paddington1191.2.9Whitechapel1381.71.7
Kensington2751.31.6St. George's-in-the-East891.61.8
Hammersmith1211111Limehouse1101.81.9
Fulham9911.8Mile-end Old Town1971.91.7
Chelsea1201-71.2Poplar3152.21.8
St. George, Hanover-sq.560-8.7St. Saviour, Southwark351.41.4
Westminster79111.4St. George, Southwark951.51.6
St. James200-9.9Newington1941.61.6
Marylebone2481-81.7St. Olave211.51.8
Hampstead540-8.7Bermondsey1311.61.5
Pancras...3552.01.4Rotherhithe113222.8
Islington3941.41.1Lambeth3551.41.2
Stoke Newington401.41.2Battersea2531.91.5
Hackney3111 .41.4Wandsworth2651.51.4
St. Giles802.021Camberwell3191.31.2
St. Martin-in-the-Fields120.8.9Greenwich2421.61.4
Strand110.7.5Lewisham9111.9
Holborn652.22.1Woolwich450.911
Clerkenwell1082.11.6Lee371.0.9
St. Luke1332.43.2Plumstead43.7
London, City of341.21.1Port of London21.5
Shoreditch2971.82.4London6,4481514
Bethnal-green3272.32.5

1 See footnote ('), page 8.
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