Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel]
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Mr. Richardson 339. In the corresponding quarter of the*previous year the
total number of cases of sickness in the workhouse was 527; Mr. ChampneyS
having had under his care 234, and Mr. Richardson, 293.
The number of births registered in the year was 2,813, of which 1,422 were
males, and 1,391 females. The deaths were 2,551, viz., 1,355 males and 1,196
females. The deaths of non-residents were 162; the excess of births over
deaths, excluding the deaths of non-residents, was 424. The deaths exceeded
the births in the Mile End New Town, Whitechapel Church, and
Aldgate Sub-Districts. It is highly probable that, from the several causes
which I have alluded to in my former reports, all the births are not registered.
The deaths during the year 1862 have exceeded the number in the
preceding year by 220, viz., 2,551 against 2,331; the mortality, therefore, has
increased upon an average of 4 every week. Of the total deaths there were
658, or 25'7 per cent, from epidemic diseases, of which 251, or 38 per cent,
were from fever. The proportion of deaths *from epidemic diseases is larger
than has occurred in any year since the formation of your Board. If we take
the total deaths which have been caused by the whole class of zymotic diseases
during the year, and calculate the per-centage of deaths from them in relation
to the total deaths, we shall find that they are 28.6 per cent. In the quarter
ending March the deaths from zymotic diseases were 125, in that ending June
185, in the Michselmas quarter they were 231, and in the Christmas quarter
they were 191. Total in the year 732. In 1858 (the most unhealthy, until
now, of the last seven years) the total mortality was 2,444, and the deaths from
zymotic diseases were 537, or 21.9 per cent of the total deaths. During the
year 1861 the proportion of deaths from zymotic diseases was only 20'4 per
cent, the total mortality being 2,331, and the deaths from zymotic diseases 476.
The excessive mortality which has occurred during the last 12 months has not
been confined to this district, but has prevailed all over the metropolis.*
Of the epidemic diseases it appears that fever has been the most fatal,
251 persons having died from it during the year. The deaths from smallpox
have likewise been very numerous, viz., 33; measles has been particularly
fatal, 153 young persons having died from this cause. The average number of
daaths annually from measles is 48, that from small-pox is 26. Owing to the diminished
temperature of the summer months diarrhoea was not nearly so fatal
as usual at this season, the average number of deaths from this disease being 106
annually, whereas during the year 1862 the deaths from this cause were only 69.
The group of diseases next in order to that of zymotic diseases as regards its
* It appears from the return of the Registrar-General, that 65,001 died in London in 1861, and 66,950
in 1862; of these there died of fever respectively 1,754, and 3,635. The mortality from fever in London in
1860 was only 1,302, or 35-5 per cent, less than in 1862.—See Tahle XII.