London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1872
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
This page requires JavaScript
12
fewer deaths took place than iu the second summer quarter. The
total deaths registered in the four quarters consecutively were—
(1) 615 (2) 490 (3) 549 (4) 517
The deaths from diseases of the zymotic class were 390, a reduction of
| Town. | Brompton. | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Pox | 62 | 6 | 68 |
| Measles | 28 | 15 | 43 |
| Scarlet Fever | 22 | 7 | 29 |
| Diphtheria | 12 | 2 | 14 |
| Whooping Cough | 69 | 8 | 77 |
| Fever—Typhus | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| ., Enteric or Typhoid | 20 | 8 | 28 |
| ,, Simple Continued | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Diarrhoea | 84 | 26 | 110 |
| Cholera | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| Total | 316 | 74 | 390 |
The average annual number of deaths in 10 years from these
diseases was 37G.1. With correction for increase of population the
number in 1872 should have been 509.
With these few preliminary remarks, I pass to the consideration
of the mortality from the principal diseases, beginning with those
of the zymotic class.
SMALL-POX.
The Small-pox epidemic, the history of which occupied so large
a space in my last annual report, lingered throughout the year.
The deaths numbered G8, viz., 29 in the Hospitals and 39 in the
parish. Taking 20 per cent, as a reasonable average fatality, it
would appear that there were about 340 cases of illness, of which
we possess records in only 195 instances, viz., 152 in the North
District, and 43 in the South District—the dividing line of the
Districts, for sanitary purposes, being the Uxbridge-road. But of
the deaths, 65 belonged to the Town registration district, and 3
to the Brompton district. From the beginning to the end of the
epidemic, i.e., from the last quarter of 1870 to the end of 1872,
there were 196 deaths of parishioners, and from the knowledge of
this fact, we arrive at the conclusion that about 1000 persons were
attacked by the disease.