View report page

4
only 36, while from measles and fever it is respectively 6G and 62. Diarrhoea has
been considerably less fatal during this quarter than it was in the corresponding one
of the preceding year, when the mortality from this cause was 68. This decrease
may be accounted for by the fact of the mean temperature of the air being below
that of the corresponding quarter of 1861. The mean temperature of the summer
quarter in 1861 was 60'4°, and in 1862 it was 58/7°, or 1.7° less. In the corresponding
quarter of 1859, when the mortality from diarrhoea was as above stated
114, the mean temperature of the air was 62.9°.
The epidemic class of diseases bears a large proportion to the total deaths;
it forms 33.1 per cent. of the total mortality. The mortality from diseases of the
lungs, exclusive of consumption, was 76, or 12 per cent. of the entire deaths. This
great disproportion between the fatal effects of lung diseases and epidemic diseases,
shows that preventible causes of disease are very prevalent in the district,'and notwith
standing all the vigilence and attention of the sanitary officers, it is impossible,
under the existing state of things, to entirely remove the numerous causes of ill
health and premature death. Many of the houses are scarcely fit for human habitation,
the same being situated in confined and ill ventilated neighbourhoods; and the
only remedy for this state of things is, to pull them down, and wherever such a
state of things is found to exist to rigidly enforce the law relating to overcrowding.
Notwithstanding the improvements that have been effected in extending the
sewerage of the district, the cesspool effluvium has not been removed: many of our
principal sewers are great cesslakes, and they emit most noxious gases from the
ventilated openings, and from the untrapped gullies. This, in many instances, is
owing to the original faulty construction of the sewers in not providing them with
a sufficient fall. The sewers have been constructed in detached portions, and no
regard has been paid to any general and comprehensive system of sewerage. The
only practicable plan therefore of now keeping the sewers free from deposit, and so
preventing the generation of noxious gases, is to adopt a regular and frequent system
of flushing; so that, the deposit may be removed before it has time to putrify.
Although the general sewerage of London may be greatly improved, and local
Boards may construct additional sewers, and cause all the houses in their respective
districts to be drained into them; and although all the streets and bye-places may
be paved, water laid on, rooms limewhited, and an increased number of scavengers
employed; all this will be found to be insufficient to improve, in any material degree,
the health of the people, and diminish the rate of the general mortality, and
especially that of young children under five years of age, unless we obtain the
hearty co-operation of the people themselves; and that cannot be obtained, until
they are instructed and made to understand and apply the rules of health. The
people must be first made to feel the necessity for improvement, and this can only
be accomplished by extending practical information among them. To show how
little regard some people pay to the observance of cleanliness, I may here mention
the following fact which recently occurred in this district: A death from fever
having been reported, the room in which the patient died was visited by the
inspector, who gave directions to have the same limewhited. When the workman;
employed to limewhite the room commenced operations, he found a very large
quantity of dirty rags under a bed in the room, in which lay a worn an with a sore
leg. It appeared that these rags had been used as dressings for the leg, and they
had been allowed to accumulate, no person removing them to the dust heap. These