Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell, St. Giles]
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Registrar General's numbers) in 1862, 65, in 1863, 50, and
in 1864, 52;* so that there was in 1864 a considerable reduction
in fever mortality from that which had obtained in
1862, and the increase above that which had obtained in 1863
was quite unimportant. But although the fever mortality has
been generally sufficiently high, and the prevalence of fever
sufficiently great to constitute a real typhus epidemic, the mortality
due to the disease, relatively to the population, has
been much smaller than these statements might lead one to
suppose; for, assuming the population of London to have remained
stationary since 1861, the fever mortality per cent, in
1864 was for all London, .1316, for the Western districts .0982,
for the Northern districts .1420, for the Central districts .1087,
for the Eastern districts .1498, and for the Southern districts
.1408. And the fever mortality for Camberwell, assuming still
the population to be no more numerous than it was in 1861,
was only .072 per cent. For the St. George's district it was
.054 per cent., for the Peckham district .06, and for the Camberwell
district .012. In Dulwich there were no fever deaths.
It must not be forgotten, however, that the deaths ascribed to
fever include, besides typhus deaths, deaths from other febrile
affections especially from typhoid or enteric fever, and that if
these latter could be deducted, the mortality at present generally
attibuted to typhus would become sensibly reduced. We know
that for many years past enteric fever has prevailed, not largely
but tolerably uniformly, throughout London; we know that
during a certain period (from about 1856 to the end of 1861)
typhus was absent from London, and that during this period
* On a former page I make the fever deaths in Camberwell 41 in 1863,
and 51 in 1864, having derived these numbers from my own interpretation
of the Local Registrars' returns; but here, as generally elsewhere, when
comparing Camberwell with other districts, I adopt for obvious reasons the
Registrar General's figures.