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

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St Giles (Camberwell) 1861

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell, St. Giles]

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18
In the parish generally, the proportion of inmates to houses
was 5.9, of inhabitants to acres 16.5,
Statistics of Mortality, &c.—In the course of the year 1861,
1419 persons died in this parish. This number as may be
seen by reference to Table VII. is, with the exception of that
for 1858, higher than the return for any one of the previous
five years. But the rate of mortality, that is the per centage
of deaths upon population, was, as an inspection of the same
Table will shew, 1.98. This number is below the death-rate
of both 1858 and 1859, and very little in excess of that of
1857 and 1860. The death-rate of London during the last
year was 2.3. The general result may therefore be regarded
as satisfactory. The year, contrasted with former years'
was not an unhealthy one; and the comparison of the mortality
of Camberwell, with that of London generally, maintains
for Camberwell still that pre-eminence in healthiness which
I have always had reason to assert for it.
The mortality of the several sub-districts was as follows:—
(Table III) In Dulwich 28 persons died, in St. George's
367, in Camberwell 486, and in Peckham 536. The deathrate
was for the first named place 1.65, for the second 1.8, for
the third 2.28, and for the last 1.91. It might be assumed
from this, that while Dulwich was by far the healthiest locality,
Camberwell proper was by far the most unhealthy. But here
a fallacy creeps in. In the Camberwell sub-district are comprised
both the workhouse and two lunatic asylums (Table
IV.), in the former of which 77 deaths occurred, in the latter
78. Of these deaths some scarcely belong to this parish at all,
and the others (the great majority) belong not to Camberwell
alone, but in proportionate degrees to every district of the
parish. If deaths from these institutions be omitted, then the
number of deaths in Camberwell sinks from 486 to 331, and