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The ordinary mortality from fever, is said to be 1 in 12. It is most fatal to
persons in the prime of life, between the ages of twenty and forty, that period when
their exertions are most needed to support and educate their families. How
important, therefore, is it to use our utmost endeavours to remove the causes of such a
fatal disease, the destroyer of parents, and the consequent pauperism of children !
If there be any persons who should have the boldness to deny that fever is
generated in overcrowded and malarious districts; no one, I apprehend, will dispute
the fact that persons living in such places have their powers of life so weakened, that
they are unable to resist the effects of those subtil poisons which produce fever, and
other epidemic diseases. It is well known that the deaths are twice as numerous in
those towns where the houses are overcrowded and situated in badly ventilated
localities, as in the country, where the poisonous emanations from the body are
diluted and dispersed. It is true, that good nutritious food, warm clothing and fuel,
will materially tend to enable the body to resist disease; but as it is not in our power
to provide these, to an unlimited extent, out of the public funds, we must content
ourselves by using our best endeavours to remove all deleterious and noxious agents
from the habitations of the poor.
The tables of sickness and mortality, showing the amount of illnegs and the mean
duration of life of the various classes in each district, which will be prepared by the
Medical Officer of Health, and published by the Local Board, will be instructive to
every one, but especially to actuaries and those interested in the science of public
health, and they will probably lead to most useful results; in the mean time they
will enable each individual to compare the sanitary condition of his own district, with
that of others, and may create a most laudable desire in the inhabitants of adjacent
localities to excel in the great work of sanitary improvement.
The value of human life in the Whitechapel District has, within the last
eighteen years, materially increased. In 1837 and 1838, the rate of mortality in it
was higher than in that of any other district in the metropolis—it being 4.521 per cent,
and for the seven years from 1839 to 1844, it was 3.321 per cent., while for the
year 1856, it was reduced to 2.598 per cent.—a difference of nearly one per cent.
when compared with the last-mentioned period, and almost two per cent. less than
the mortality of 1837 and 1838. The deaths of children under five years of age, in
the Whitechapel district, are far more numerous in proportion than in most other
localities. In 1855, they amounted to 1056, (558 males and 498 females). The
deaths from all ages were 2459. If we exclude the deaths which occurred in the
London Hospital, in which institution very few young children are admitted, from the
total mortality, it will be seen that, nearly one-half of the entire number of deaths
occurs in children under five years of age. Throughout England, the mortality of
children under five, is 39 per cent.
In 1821, the population of the Whitechapel District was 68,905. At the last
census in 1851, it was 79,759, although between these periods about 1743 houses
have been pulled down in order to make room for the various improvements. The
building of St. Katharine's Docks occasioned the pulling down of 1033 houses, the
Eastern Counties and Blackwall Railways about 150, the new Street from the London
Docks to Shoreditch about 560, while probably during the same period not more
than 360* new houses have been erected; yet the population from 1821 to 1851 shows
*Three large lodging houses have been erected in the district, capable of holding about
824 persons, viz., the Sailors' Home and Destitute Sailors' Asylum, 350; Metropolitan
Chambers, 234 ; Metropolitan Buildings, 240.