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
Kensington 1879
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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10
happy position of haying a death-rate from these diseases much below
that of the Metropolis generally.
Ihe subjoined table sets out necessary particulars of the mortality from the principal zymotic diseases in 1879, together with the decennial average, &c.:—
| Diseases. | Sub-districts. Town. Brompton. | In Hospital. Totals. | Totals in 1878. | Decennial (uncorrected) average. | Decennial (corrected) average. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small-Pox | 2 | 4 | 16 | 22 | 8 | 31.9 | 37.1 |
| Measles | 47 | 13 | 0 | 60 | 53 | 62.8 | 73.0 |
| Scarlet Fever | 27 | 14 | 101 | 51 | 70 | 69.4 | 80.7 |
| Diphtheria | 26 | 1 | 0 | 27 | 20 | 15.5 | 18.0 |
| Whooping Cough | 79 | 14 | 0 | 93 | 185 | 81.4 | 94.6 |
| Typhus Fever | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Enteric Fever | 12 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 24 | 39.6 | 46.0 |
| Simple Continued Fever | 6 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 | ||
| Diarrhœa | 62 | 9 | 0 | 71 | 181 | 127.1 | 147.8 |
| 262 | 59 | 26 | 347 | 548† | 427.7 | 497.2 | |
It is thus seen that with the exception of whooping cough, which
presented an average fatality; and diphtheria, which was slightly
in excess, the mortality from each of these diseases was below the
average; and that, as usual, the deaths in the Brompton sub-district
were relatively fewer in proportion to population than in the Town
sub-district. In the parish as a whole the deaths were 150 below the
corrected decennial average, and were equal to 11.6 per cent. on
the deaths from all causes, and to a rate of 2.2 per 1000 persons
living; the decennial rate being 3.2 per 1000 in the parish and 4.2
per 1000 in the whole Metropolis.
I now proceed to make some observations on each of the above
diseases, and first with respect to—
Scarlet Fever.—The deaths from scarlet fever registered in the
parish were 41 (27 in the Town sub-district and 14 in Brompton), viz.,
8, 10, 6, and 17 in the four quarters respectively. There were in addition
10 deaths from "fever," assumed to be scarlet fever, in the hospitals
of the Metropolitan Asylum District, making a total of 51—the corrected
decennial average being 80. The cases recorded were 277, viz., 56 in the
* Returned as " fever" simply, in the Hospital Reports,
† Besides 25 deaths in Hospitals, raising the total to 573.