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) 1862
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]
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The deaths from Tubercular Disease were as usual very diversely distributed,
the poorer parts of St. Giles', in which there are many common
lodging houses, suffering to an extreme degree. It has been said that the
general mortality of the district from this class of causes was high in 1862.
There is nothing worthy of remark in the special distribution of the excess.
The Ten Localities--their order of Mortality from Diseases of the Lungs, 1862
| Order of Sequence, 186 2. | Locality of | Deaths from Lung Diseases. | Mortality per 10,000. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acte Bronchitis, Inflammation of Lungs and Pleura. | Chronic Bronchitis and Asthma. | Total. | From acute lung diseases. | From all lung diseases. | ||
| Best 1st | A. Bedford-square | 4 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 18 |
| 2nd | B. Russell-square | 8 | 4 | 12 | 14 | 22 |
| 3rd | D. Bloomsbury-squnre | 12 | 7 | 19 | 23 | 36 |
| 4th | L. Lincoln's Inn-fields | 9 | I | 10 | 40 | 44 |
| 5th | K. Southern Drury-lane | 22 | 6 | 28 | 43 | 55 |
| 6th | C. Coram-street | 22 | 15 | 37 | 36 | 61 |
| 7th | H. Northern Drury-lane | 20 | 15 | 35 | 39 | 68 |
| 8th | F. Dudley-street | 43 | 23 | 66 | 47 | 73 |
| Worst 9-10 | E. Church lane | 21 | 17 | 38 | 45 | 81 |
| G. Short's-gardens | 29 | 28 | 57 | 46 | 90 | |
| Workhouse Inmates | 5 | 28 | 33 | - | - | |
| Whole District | 195 | 147 | 342 | 37 | 63 | |
Here are shewn the neighbourhoods that have suffered most in 1862 from
lat enormous mortality from Lung Diseases that has been seen to character???
our district.
The two districts lowest on the list were also lowest in the preceding year,
gain may be observed the vast preponderance of these disorders in the
nfortunate districts of St. Giles, where poverty necessitates constant exposure
??? the vicissitudes of weather, and forbids the system from being adequately
rotected by clothing and food against the ill effects of such exposure.
The distribution of Deaths from Violence needs no particular discussion.
It is allotted a column in the following table, where for the first time an
investigation is made into the localization of a class of disease which is
especially prevalent in our district.
It will be seen from the second column of the subjoined table that Brain
diseases are much more fatal in the poor districts than in the more prosperous
parts. But the third column will prove that this disproportion applies to Brain
diseases scarcely otherwise than as it applies to the mortality from all causes.
Convulsions in children being so prominent a member of this class of diseases,
and all the disorders fatal to children being so especial rife among the poor,
this negative result is about what would have been anticipated.