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1865-6.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
Medical Officer of Heath.
§ I. — On the Mortality of the Metropolis in 1865 p. 1.
§ II.— On the Mortality of St. Giles's in 1865. From all Causes.
Comparison with other Districts P.2.
§ III.—On the Causes of Death in St. Giles's in 1865 p. 4.
§ IV.— On the Localization of Disease and Death in St. Giles's in 1865 p. 7.
§ V.— On the Uncertified Deaths of 1865 p. 8.
§ VI.— On the Diseases and Deaths in the practice of Public Medical
Institutions in St. Giles's P.9.
§ VII.— On the Infants' Home, Great Coram Street p.11.
§ VIII.— On the Sanitary Work of 1865 p. 12.
Section I.—On the Mortality of the Metropolis in 1865.
The death-rate of London in 1865, was no less than 24½ per thousand
residents, the deaths numbering 73,460, and the population, estimated to the
middle of the year, being 2,993,513. This is below the extreme death-rate
(26½) of 1864, but higher than that of any other of the past ten years.
In the first quarter of 1865, the deaths of the metropolis were at the rate
of 28 in the thousand annually; the third quarter was the least fatal, giving a
rate of 22¼. In the second and fourth quarters respectively, the rate of mortality
was 23 and 24½ annually per thousand.
Commenting on the connexion between these rates of death and the peculiarity
of the seasons in 1865, the Registrar General observes, The winter
was cold, and February and March seemed insensible to the growing power of
the summer. The mean temperature of each of the first three months lay
between 36° and 37°. The mean night temperature of these months was below
or little above the freezing point of water; bronchitis was unusually fatal; and
the rate of mortality in the coldest Weeks of January and February rose a
fourth above the annual average . . . . After May 20th, through June, the
mean temperature was high, and it rose still higher in July, reading 66°. The
temperature began to rise rapidly on the 20th of June; and the thermometer
touched 88° in the air and 148° in the sun on June 23rd. The deaths from
diarrhoea suddenly increased in this week to 187; in successive weeks
they rose to 184, to 301 in July, and then slowly declined through August and
September,"—the chief and very opportune fall being in the 33rd week of the
year after a wet week of singularly depressed temperature. On the whole, the
diarrhœa deaths were more numerous than in any recent year, the disease being
quite as fatal as in the last cholera year 1854. "The deaths from summer
cholera had not exceeded one weekly, but in the third week of June three died;
and the deaths increased weekly until 23 were registered in the last week of
July; then the deaths gradually fell off, and the deaths by cholera in the year
were 193."