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) 1868
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]
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The preponderance of mortality from this affection was in the last quarter
of the year and in the sub-district of St. Giles South; and it will be observ ed
that so long as the disease was sporadic and comparatively mild, Bloomsbury
yielded as many deaths as St. Giles South, but as soon as the malady became
intense St. Giles South became the chief sufferer. This is the common
history of disease in unhealthy localities. It is when the poison is virulent,
that insalubrity tells; if, indeed, it does not make the virulence.
The following Table sets forth the mortality in the several London
hospitals among patients brought out of the three sub-districts of St. Giles.
It is curious as showing the extent to which the sub-districts availed themselves
of hospital assistance. As St. Giles South provided the largest number
of patients, so King's Cross and the Charing Cross Hospitals, which are the
nearest to that sub-district, were most frequently resorted to. The Fever
Hospital likewise gave very beneficial aid to our District during the year.
TABLE V.
Deaths in Hospitals among Patients brought from the Sub-districts of St. Giles, 1868.
| Districts. | Population. | St. Bartholomew's Hospital (W. London) | Kings College Hospital, (Strand). | Westminster Hospital (Westminster.) | Charing Cross Hospital (St. Martins) | Middlesex Hospital (Marylebone). | University College Hospital (St. Pancras) | London Fever Hospital (Islington). | Small Pox Hospital, Highgate. | Royal Free Hospital (St. Pancras). | Children's Hospital (Holborn.) | Total ascertained Deaths in London Hospitals. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomsbury | 17,392 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| South St. Giles | 19,483 | 2 | 26 | 0 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 59 |
| North St. Giles... | 17,201 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
The figures in the above Table were obtained by personal inspection of the Registers
of the several Hospitals.
V.—The Mortality in the Workhouse and other Local
Institutions.
I have been desirous of giving the usual statement respecting the number
of cases treated by the Parochial Surgeons during the year, together with the
mortality from all and specified causes; but I regret that I have been unable
to complete the statistical record. The book from which the Table has been
heretofore compiled, contains no record of practice among the " out patients"
for the last quarter of the past year, owing, as Mr. Bennett informs me, to
an order from the Poor Law Board, requiring the old books to be discontinued,
and a new set to be adopted. The records, however, as regards the mortality
in the Workhouse, and among patients treated at their own homes are
complete.
The following Tables enable us to form an opinion of the largo amount of
useful work done by the Parish Medical Officers. The zymotic diseases
which appear to have been most prevalent within the Workhouse were measles
(27), fever (100), and whooping cough (33). The cases do not appear to
have been severe, there having been 7 deaths only. Among the out patients
attending at the Workhouse during the three quarters of the year recorded,
the most frequent of these diseases were diarrhoea (1726), fever (476) and
whooping-cough (100). The cases of diarrhoea were very numerous although,
as might be expected from the circumstance of their attending the Workhouse,
not so severe as to become fatal.