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 1957
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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It is the migration factor that accounts for the population of London increasing
despite the fact as observed by Graunt and Morris that in the Bills of Mortality the
number of burials exceeded that of christenings which prima facie would imply that the
population was decreasing. As Morris himself put it 'Multitudes of adult persons are
continually called to London by occasional business' and 'many of these persons
are not married and the few of those who are (do not) bring their wives upon
these occasions. All these persons are therefore liable to die (and) can add nothing
to the christenings'.
After times of high death rate in London it was apparently the practice of country
traders to come to London and take over the deserted shops of their predecessors:
hence soon after a plague the population was thereby replenished. Morris gives instances
of the rise in the number of christenings within two years of a plague year to justify
this statement.
Estimated rates
The years chosen, somewhat arbitrarily, are 1657, 1757, 1857 and 1957 and in the table below are set out the number of burials recorded or deaths registered in these years, the population estimates for these years (or the nearest available), and the death rates calculated solely on these figures.
| Year | Deaths (burials or registrations) | Estimated population | Estimated death rate |
|---|---|---|---|
Note.—The death rate based on the actual number of burials recorded in 1757 is probably too low. If Ogle's estimated
omissions are taken into account the rate would be as high as 46. Rickman's estimate was 48.
Discussion
We are now in a position to consider in a reasonably critical frame of mind the vital
statistics since 1603, and, for this purpose, the 'Bills' of 1657, 1757, 1857 and 1957 have
been reproduced in Annex B. The Bills for 1657 and 1757 are taken from the ' Collection
of Yearly Bills' (1759). The figures for 1857 from the Registrar General's Annual
Report for that year and the table for 1957 has been re-arranged to accord as far as
possible with the lay-out for 1857. None of these years was characterised by an untoward
epidemic—1657 precedes the Great Plague of London in 1665 and 1857 avoids any of
the cholera epidemics. Although there was a smallpox epidemic in 1757 it was a typical
year for the period.
A word or two of explanation of some of the causes listed in the first two years is
probably needed. Calenture appears to refer to sunstroke (according to Dr. Johnson it
was 'a distemper peculiar to sailors in hot climates wherein they imagine the sea to be
green fields, and will throw themselves into it'); tisick was an old English word for
tuberculosis; dysentery was not clearly diagnosed in those days and appears under
various names as 'Bloody Flux and Griping of the Guts'; head mould shot, horseshoehead
and water in the head refer to hydrocephalus; imposthume was an abscess;
livergrowne probably rickets. King's Evil referred to scrofula (tuberculous glands of
the neck) and was thought to be curable by the touch of the King's hand (the Stuarts
touched thousands of persons but William III found it rather an unpleasant duty and
gave up the practice) ; rising of the lights may well have been eclampsia.
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