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

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St Giles (Camden) 1862

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

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7
to this class At the other extreme of life, it is again observed that St. Giles'
has its full share of persons who die of nothing but old age. One woman is
even recorded to have reached the age of 104 years. Oil the other hand, nine
of the persons who are said to have died of old age, had not reached the age
of fourscore years and ten, and one woman is registered as dying of "natural
decay,"—that was very unnatural —at the age of 50 years.
Of Deaths from Violence, it does not appear that so many occurred in
St. Giles' as the number of its residents would lead us to expect. On the other
hand, deaths from Causes that were not specified, or badly defined, were twice
as common in our district as in the average of the town, and it is to be
feared that among them some deaths occurred that were open to the suspicion
of being caused by violence.
To recapitulate then, the high mortality of St. Giles' in the year 1862, resulted
firstly, from a small excess (5.5 per cent., and less than the average excess
of former years) in the class of miasmatic or contagious diseases, of which
typhus fever was the only member contributing an exceptional mortality above
other districts. Secondly, from a large excegs, (47.8 percent.) in the important
class of consumptive disorders. Thirdly, from a great excess (54.3 per cent.)
in the equally important group of lung diseases, acute and chronic; and
fourthly, from a great excess (65.8 per cent.) in such children's diseases as are
not comprised in the foregoing classes. The causes of the diseases thus in
excess are to some extent such as public sanitary measures can deal with, but
are to a greater degree dependent on conditions of exposure, destitution, and
ignorance, that cannot be dealt with directly by the Officer of Health.
SECTION IV.—On the Localization of Disease and Death in
St. Giles' in 1862.
A. In Sub-districts. Before a death-rate can be obtained for each of
the sub-districts of St. Giles', correction has to be made for deaths in Hospitals,
while deaths occurring in the Workhouse must be considered apart. In
so far as the mortality in the Workhouse resulted from recent disease that
was taken into the Infirmary for treatment, this mortality may be distributed
among the streets from which the patients were brought. These corrections
lead to the following results :—

Sub-districts of St. Giles's, Deaths in 1862.

Deaths of residents in sub-district ofDying at own HomesDying in Hospitals.Dying ill Worhouse.Total.
Bloomsbury3421816376
St Giles's South44138116595
(Workhouse Inmates, & c.)......108108
St. Giles's North4042456484
Whole District1187802961563

The death-rate of persons resident in each sub-district, without reference to
the place where they happened to die, is therefore, in St. George Bloomsbury,
21.6 per 1000; in St. Giles' South 31.7 per 1000; and in St. Giles' North
28.2 per 1000. Herein the Workhouse with its residents is excluded.