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

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Kensington 1873

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]

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parish, thus raising the total deaths to 2526 and the rate to 19
per 1000. Desirous of ascertaining how near this rough estimate
was to the fact, I made enquiries at many of the Hospitals and
was surprised to find how few Kensington parishioners died in any
of them, excepting the local Hospitals of St. George and St.
Mary. I obtained information respecting 2600 deaths, of which
83 belong to Kensington; of these 39 took place in St. Mary's
Hospital and 34 in St. George's. In Charing Cross, University,
St. Bartholomew's, Westminster, and Middlesex Hospitals out of
a total of 1300 deaths only seven belong to Kensington. In the
London and St. Thomas's Hospitals out of nearly one thousand
deaths not one belongs to Kensington. The conclusion I arrive
at therefore is, that by including in the mortality returns a
number of deaths equal to those that occurred at the Brompton
Consumption Hospital, we shall get as fair an approximation as
possible to the total deaths of Kensington parishioners in Hospitals,
thus raising our deaths to 2436 and the rate of mortality to 18.3
per 1000. I need hardly say it would be satisfactory if an annual
return were made, showing the cause of death and the previous
residence of those who end their days in Hospitals, in order that
each Medical Officer of Health might include the proper quota in
his Annual Report. At present we can do nothing more than take
credit for a gross number which may be very wide of the mark;
for, not to enter upon other grounds of uncertainty, we know
that many persons die in the Hospitals who have come to Town to
obtain Medical or Surgical aid.
The subjoined table shows the death-rate in the Parish, the
Metropolis generally, and the great divisions into which it is
mapped bv the Registrar General:—

DEATH RATE, 1873.

Kensington18.3 per 1000
London22.5 „
West Districts20.5 „
North „21.2 „
Central „25.0 „
East „25.2 „
South „22.0 „

The deaths from the seven principal diseases of the zymotic
class were 290, equal to 119 per 1000 deaths, viz.:—
Small-pox 0.4 per 1000 Deaths
Measles 15.6 „
Scarlet Fever 4.1 „
Diphtheria 4.5
Whooping Cough 18.0 ,,
Fever 16.8 „
Diarrhoea 59.6