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135, Bethnal Green Road,
February, 2bth, 1858.
" Hygiene substitutes men for children."
Gentlemen,
I have the honor to present my Report on
our Sanitary History, during 1857. In my First Annual, I
had the pleasure of recording, that in 1856 the health of
Bethnal Green, as of all London, was unusually good. It is
now my less pleasing task to report that the year 1857 proved
less genial and more destructive to life. The mortality of
London rose from 56,786 to 60,150; that of Bethnal Green
from 1905 to 2291.* As the meteorological conditions of years
vary, so, more or less, they affect and tell on life. Hence,
health must be measured by the average mortality of several
yearsf—not by the returns of a single twelvemonth. In the
year just gone by, " the 5th and 6th weeks were very cold ; "
the spring was warm, and the heat in June intense ; the summer
throughout was hot, and the average temperature of the
autumn high. This hot weather Mons. Babinet, the French
astronomer, attributes to changes in the currents of the ocean;
and expresses his belief, that 1857 was the first of a series of
many hot years to come.‡ " The slowness of the wind's
movements " was another peculiar feature of the year. The
meteorology and mortality of each month are exhibited in
* These numbers exactly correspond with the Registrar-General's "Weekly
Returns," but arc 2 in exccss of his Yearly Summary, in which, at page vi. it is
said, "the totals differ slightly from those that are obtained from the "Weekly
Returns." So also, the Sub-District Epidemic Table, in Appendix, though a fac
simile of the Registrar's Sheets, differs slightly from the Registrar-General's Yearly
Return.
† " The average of 7 years will give the prevailing law of mortality."—ItetjistrarGeneral's
4th Annual Report, page 17.
‡ Lancet, September 5th, 1857, page 252.