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invariably shut them, or move away from them. Rooms warmed by cooked or heated
air, are by some persons considered neither healthful nor agreeable, and if the
apartment be well warmed by a fire, it is not necessary to introduce it.
I am not aware of a single public building in this large district, with the
exception of the Model Lodging House, in Albert-street, which is properly ventilated,
and I would respectfully call the attention of the Churchwardens and others, holding
official positions in the district, to the fact above stated, and urge upon them the
propriety, not to say the necessity, of considering the most efficient and economical
means of ventilating the churches and other public buildings, over which they have
control and management. When only a few persons are assembled together in a
large room, the ordinary mode of ventilation by means of doors and windows, may be
sufficient; but when rooms are crowded, and gas lights burning, unless other means
are used of getting rid of the foul air, and ample provision made for the ingress of
fresh, the sense of oppression to many persons exposed to such influence is so great,
that injury to their health will be the certain result. The drowsiness and restlessness
which are frequently felt in crowded churches, are owing to the inhalation of air
which has been breathed, and deteriorated by the combustion of gas.
Fourteen deaths only, out of the 669 recorded in your district during the last
quarter, were not certified. In the Artillery District, 3 were not certified; in the
Spitalfields, 2; in the Whitechapel North, 3; and in the Goodman's-fields, 3. In
the Aldgate Registration District, every case of death was certified. It must not,
however, be inferred that because nearly all the deaths were certified by qualified
medical practitioners, that every case of death occurred while the patient was under
their treatment; for it is a common practice among the poor to bring their children,
at the last stage of disease, to a qualified medical practitioner, merely for. the purpose
of obtaining a certificate of the cause of death, fancying that the child cannot be buried
unless such certificate be obtained. The mortality among young children under one
year of age, is appalling: nearly one-fifth of the total mortality occurring under that
age. Scrofula, and pneumonia (or inflammation of the lungs) are recorded as being the
chief causes of death, but when certificates of death are given in the hurried manner
which I am informed in many instances is the case, a correct diagnosis cannot be formed.
Many eases of hydrocephalus and syphilis are possibly registered under the heads of
bronchitis, pneumonia, and other diseases. How to lessen this frightful amount of
mortality among infants, is a question well worthy the most serious attention of the
community. If the cause of death in all these instances could be seen, the greatest
excitement would be occasioned, and the most rigid inquiries instituted, but because
this large annual mortality takes place silently, the deaths are considered as being in
the course of nature, or in other words, as unavoidable, and the matter creates but
little interest. Public health is now becoming a national concern, and I have no
doubt that in the course of a few years, remedies will be suggested, and plans
carried into execution, whereby the melancholy fact of so many children being born
merely to die in the course of a few months, will no longer be recorded.
Proceedings were taken, in January last, under the Building Act of 18-14,
against the proprietor of a newly established bone-boiling business, and since the date
of my last Report, the business has been discontinued. Three persons who
carried on this offensive trade, have left the district, since the formation of your
board.
The following tables will show the work done by the Inspectors of Nuisances,
since the period of their appointment, in February, 1856.