View report page

REPORT
FOR THE QUARTER ENDING,
The 27th JUNE, 1863.
Gentlemen,
The total deaths in the Whitechapel District during
this Quarter, including the deaths of 40 non-residents who died in the London
Hospital, have been 639. The mortality still continues to be much in excess of
the average for the corresponding periods of the preceding seven years. The
excess in the rate of mortality during the first three months of this year was 8.5
per week above that in the corresponding quarters of the preceding seven years,
and the mortality during this quarter has been at the rate of 8.2 per week above
the average of that in the corresponding quarters of the preceding seven years.
From 1856 to 1861 both included, the average mortality in the June Quarter
was 519.5. In the June Quarter of 1862, the mortality was 610. The increase
of the mortality in this quarter above that of the corresponding quarter of last
year is 29, and 107 above the average in the corresponding quarters of 1856-61.
The great increase in the number of deaths in this district is much to be
deplored, as there is no reason to believe that the population in this district has
increased. Judging from the number of houses which have recently been taken
down for the Blackwall. Railway extension, the population ought to have
decreased, but it is more than probable that those persons who have been displaced
by the taking down of their residences have obtained rooms in other houses in
the district; and have rendered such houses still more overcrowded. The population
in 1861 was found to be nearly the same as it was in 1851, In the official
returns, the population of this district is stated to have been in 1851, 79,759, and
in 1861, 78,971, or 789 less; but in 1851, the number of persons living on board
ship in the Docks and on the River was 979, while in 1861 it was only 264;
the population therefore living in houses in 1861 was only 74 less than it was in
1851. The number of inhabited houses in 1851 was 8812, and in 1861 it was
8664. The decrease in the number of houses was 148, while the number of the
people living in houses in the district was only reduced by 74. The overcrowding
which now probably exists in a greater degree than heretofore may in some
measure account for the great increase in the rate of mortality during the last
two years.
What may be the ultimate result of the present unsatisfactory condition
of this district as regards the health of the people cannot be predicted with
certainty; but we have reason to believe that the rate of mortality will increase
unless improvements are effected, so as to admit currents of air into the most
densely populated quarters. Epidemic diseases are constantly among us, and
they appear to excite very little alarm; but if Cholera, which is only an occasional