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REPORT.
Gentlemen,
The third year of my office as your Medical Officer of Health
being now completed, I have again the honor of laying before you, in accordance with
my annual practice, an account of the mortality of the Whitechapel District for the
year that ended on the 1st January, 1859, together with a tabular statement of the
improvements effected in those houses and localities to which the attention of the
Inspectors has been directed.
The total number of deaths registered in this district, for the year 1848, was
2444, viz: 1331 males, and 1113 females. The deaths of the non-residents in the
district were 216, of which number 211 died in the London Hospital, and 5 in the
Military Hospital in the Tower. The deaths in the London Hospital, which were
the result of violence, I have placed to the account of the mortality of this district,
except in those very few cases where the previous residences of the parties are given.
The deaths in the Military Hospital in the Tower, occurred among the garrison, which
not being included in the population of the district, I have considered as non-residents.
The mortality for the last three months was 673, and, for the corresponding
quarter of last year, it was 609, including, in both instances, the deaths of the nonresidents.
The period of the greatest mortality was during the five weeks, commencing
in the second week of November, and terminating in the 6econd week of December,
when the deaths amounted to 323, or an average of nearly 65 per week.
The great increase of the mortality which occurred at that time, was not confined
to this locality, but it extended over the whole metropolis, and may be accounted
for, by the great reduction in the temperature of the air, which took place at that
period. In the third week of October, when the mean temperature of the air was
51.1°, the deaths in the Whitechapel District were 31. In the third week of
November, the temperature of the air became reduced to the extent of 16°, and the
mortality was increased to 62 in the week. In the first week of November, the mortality
was 40 ; in the two following weeks it rose to 60 and 62 respectively; and in the
week ending Saturday, November 27th, the mortality was also 62. The mean temperature
of the air in the first week of November was 43.3°. In the last three weeks