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dirty rags were stated to be covered with innumerable maggots, and the stench from
the whole mass was intolerable. The limewasher collected this accumulation of
filth in a pail and burnt it in the yard at the back of the house. The rent collector,
the landlord, and all persons engaged from humane and religious motives, in visiting
the abodes of the poor may do a great deal by persuasion towards inducing the
inmates to observe personal and household cleanliness.
The following fact, as witnessed by Ma. Coward one of the Sanitary
Inspectors, induces me to believe that there is a larger proportional amount of destitution
in this district than in many others; and if so, it may, in some measure,
account for the large number of cases of illness and deaths from fever and other
diseases which have for the last nine months occurred in this district. Mr. Coward
remarks that he has seen some of the very poor collect the heads of fish which are
thrown away at the fish market in Petticoat Lane, and also vegetables and fruit in
Spitalfields Market which have been considered by the dealers as unfit for food, and
when the persons collecting this refuse from the fish and vegetable markets have
been asked for what purpose they were. collecting it, the reply given was to take it
home for food.
The deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs were 76 against 59 for
the corresponding quarter of the preceding year; those from diseases of the organs
of circulation were 21 against 15, from tubercular diseases 49, the same number as
in the previous year; the deaths from consumption were 44 against 49. The death
of a child aged eight months from purpura is recorded, attended with bleeding from
the nose and gums. For the week ending August 23rd, the death of a child aged
10 months, son of a cigar maker residing in Tewksbury Buildings, is recorded as
having died from debility caused by squalid misery and dirt. In the Workhouse
there occurred the death of a female aged 56, "from burns self caused, while of
unsound mind." Nineteen persons died from the effects of violence, one from
hanging, one from the effects of corrosive poison, but whether the poison was taken
accidentally or intentionally with a view to self destruction, is not specified.
Five persons were drowned in the river; and five died from the effects of burns and
scalds. - One death from pyæmia and one from the effects of lead poisoning
occurred in the London Hospital,
Scarlet fever and diptheria were fatal to 27 persons; of these cases, seven
occurred within a very short distance of each other, viz., at Everard's Place, "Wells
Place, and Gower's Row. This locality is not well drained. Three deaths from
cholera are recorded; one of which occurred in Underwood Street; respecting this
case the medical attendant states that it was a well marked' one of Asiatic cholera.
Another occurred at No. 4 Cartwright Street, and was also a decided one of Asiatic
cholera; it was attended with rice-water purging, suppression of urine, and collapse.
The other ease occurred at Three Tun Alley. Besides the cases of Asiatic cholera,
two deaths of children from choleraic diarrhœa are recorded. There were seven
deaths from small-pox. The patients for the most part had not been vaccinated.
One death however from this disease is recorded as having occurred to a child nine
months old who had been vaccinated.