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
St Giles (Camden) 1858
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]
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Order of Mortality from Zymotic Class of Disease —Miasmatic Order.
| Order of Sequence, 1858. | Locality of | Deaths from Miasmatic Diseases in 1858. | Per 10,00 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Miasmatic Piseases. | Small Pox. | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Diphthe-ritis. | Whooping Cough. | Diarrhoea | Contind. Fever. | 1857 | 1858 | ||
| Best 1st & 2nd. | A. Bedford Square | 10 | — | 1 | 5 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 | 36 | 28 |
| L. Lincoln's Inn Fields | 8 | — | — | 4 | — | 2 | 1 | — | 56 | 32 | |
| 3rd to 5th. | D. Bloomsbury Square | 26 | — | 5 | 6 | 2 | 5 | — | 4 | 47 | 39 |
| B. Russell Square | 19 | 1 | — | 4 | 1 | 6 | — | 4 | 25 | 40 | |
| K. Southern Drary Lane | 21 | — | — | 4 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 77 | 41 | |
| 6th to 9th. | G. Short's Gardens | 35 | — | 5 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 98 | 53 |
| C. Coram Street | 35 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 27 | 55 | |
| H. Northern Drury Lane | 28 | — | 3 | 7 | — | 4 | 7 | 4 | 89 | 55 | |
| F. Dudley Street | 44 | 3 | 2 | 11 | — | 10 | 8 | 8 | 99 | 56 | |
| Worst 10th. | E. Church Lane | 34 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 65 | 66 |
| Workhouse | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | |
| Omitted by error | 2 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | — | |
| Total District | 263 | 7 | 26 | 70 | 10 | 51 | 35 | 39 | 64 | 48 | |
around the High Street. Cases of Small-pox were widely scattered through the
district; in two spots becoming almost epidemic, about St. Giles's Church, and in and
about Keppel Mews North. Deaths occurred from this disease in these places as well
as in the Coram Street locality, where it first appeared in 1857. With one exception,
wherever the point could be determined, it appeared that the victims were not protected
by vaccination. It deserves also to be recorded that in the great majority of cases,
glaring sanitary evils were also apparent on the premises in which small-pox had
occurred.
The largest number of cases of Measles occurred in the Coram Street locality.
This and kindred diseases have combined to produce a much greater mortality in this
district, in 1858 than in 1857. Measles was comparatively absent from the southern
parts, about Drury Lane, which were ravaged by the disease in the earlier year. It
is to be remembered, that such a malady occurring one year in an epidemic form, is
pretty sure to be less fatal than usual in the following year, even without any improvement
whatever in the material conditions which foster the disease. Whooping-cough
and Continued Fever maintain their ground in the Dudley Street subdivision,
but though still fatal here more than elsewhere, the actual number of deaths from these
diseases has fallen to almost one-half of that observed in 1857.
The amount of mortality from all zymotic diseases together, in the ten localities
being compared for the two past years, we find that some very remarkable changes
have taken place. In two of the ten localities there has been a decided increase in the
prevalence of these diseases, viz: about Russell Square and Coram Street: after allowing
for the unusual prevalence in London at large, there remains a surplus of zymotic
diseases in 1858 over 1857, which is, perhaps, as much attributable to a deficiency
below the average in the earlier year, as to an excess in the other. Certainly, the