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 1882
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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17
faction; and as the general rate and the zymotic rate were both
below the average in 1882, to that satisfaction we are fairly
entitled.
It need hardly be said, on the other hand, that a persistently
high rate of mortality from zymotic diseases is always a subject
for serious consideration; but, as we shall see in due course,
Kensington has hitherto been in the happy position of having a
death-rate from these diseases much below that of the Metropolis
generally.
The subjoined table* sets out necessary particulars of the mortality from the principal zymotic diseases in
| Diseases. | Sub-Districts. | In Hospitals. | Totals. | Totals in 1881. | Decennial Average. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town. | Brompton. | Town. | Brompton | (uncorrected) | (corrected) | |||||||
| Small Pox | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 55 | 27.5 | 30.7 | ||||
| Measles | 70 | 7 | .. | .. | 77 | 67 | 66.2 | 73.9 | ||||
| Scarlet Fever | 38 | 13 | 11 | .. | 62 | 38 | 51.3 | 57.3 | ||||
| Diphtheria | 16 | 9 | .. | .. | 25 | 8 | 17.7 | 19.7 | ||||
| Whooping Cough | 97 | 22 | .. | .. | 119 | 85 | 88.9 | 99.3 | ||||
| Typhus Fever | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 32 | 2 | 29 | 34.7 | 38.7 | ||
| Enteric Fever | 20 | 3 | 2 | .. | 25 | 22 | ||||||
| Simple Con. Fever | 5 | 1 | .. | .. | 6 | 6 | ||||||
| Diarrhœa | 54 | 7 | .. | .. | 61 | 101 | 118.0 | 131.8 | ||||
| 301 | 62 | 13 | .. | 376 | 383 | 404.3 | 451.4 | |||||
From the above table we learn that the deaths from
the seven principal zymotic diseases, were 7 fewer than
in 1881, and 75 below the corrected decennial average. As usual,
the deaths in the Brompton sub-district were relatively fewer in
proportion to population than in the Town sub-district. The
deaths from zymotic diseases were equal to 139 and 163 per •
1,000 deaths from all causes in Kensington and the Metropolitis
respectively, and to a rate of 2.2 and 3.5 per 1,000 persons
living, the decennial average being 2.7 in Kensington, and 3.6
in London. By way of comparison it may be mentioned that
* The figures in the table do not tally with the figures in the RegistrarGeneral's
Annual Summary, because (1) deaths of non-parishioners at Marylebone
Infirmary are excluded; (2) deaths at the Asylum board's Hospitals are
added; (3) corrections are made of known errors in medical diagnosis; and (4)
I do not always accept the Registrar-General's selection when two or more
diseases arc1 entered in the medical certificate of the cause of death.