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5
been causes of complaint, but until the passing of the Metropolis Local
Management Act and the Nuisances Removal Act the powers vested in local
boards to suppress such nuisances were very limited. Since the passing of
the above-named Acts a great deal has been done, as I have just observed,
on the part of these manufacturers to mitigate the nuisance arising from
their premises, but as there have been about sixty new houses recently
erected in the vicinity of their works it is now absolutely necessary for
the proprietors to observe greater precautions in preventing the effluvia of
decomposed and decomposing animal matter escaping into the neighbourhood.
The deaths in the Workhouse are 81 against 69 for the Christmas
quarter of 1862 (14 weeks against 13). The deaths from fever in the
Workhouse are 16, and from diarrhoea 4. The deaths in the London Hospital
are 118.
The uncertified deaths are 10. One was recorded as scarlet fever, 1 as
hooping cough, 1 in the Spitalfields Sub-District as "hooping-aptha in
mouth!'' 1 in the Artillery Sub-District as spasm of the glottis, a child aged
4 months; and the other uncertified deaths are registered as convulsions,
debility, and premature birth.
The mortality of children in the entire district, under 5 years of age, in relation
to the total mortality, is 42.4 per cent. In the Spitalfields Sub-District
the mortality under 5 years is 61.8 per cent., and in the Whitechapel North
Sub-District 54.6 per cent.
The Medical Officers of the Union attended 3803 new cases of sickness,
including 13 of small-pox, of which number 6 had been and 7 had not been
previously vaccinated. The cases of fever were 161, of scarlet fever 50,
and of diarrhœa 166. From the fact of the deaths from scarlet fever
having been nearly as numerous (46) as the cases of this disease (50) among
the paupers attended by the Medical Officers of the Union it may be inferred
that scarlet fever has been proportionately more prevalent among the upper
classes than among the poor of the district.
The number of cases of sickness in the workhouse was 656, including 5 of
small-pox, 2 of measles, 7 of scarlet fever, 3 of hooping cough, 18 of diarrhœa,
and 90 of fever. Of these 656 cases Mr. Champneys attended 312, and Mr.
Richardson 344. Mr. Richardson remarks that 2 of the small-pox cases
attended by him in the workhouse had been vaccinated and were of a modified
character. In the corresponding quarter of the previous year the cases of
sickness in the workhouse were 657, of which number 121 were of fever.
Although no improvement in the water supply in the District has taken
place since my last report, I may here state what I omitted to mention in my
previous report, that the courts in Blue Anchor Yard have been for upwards
of twelve months past supplied with water on Sundays by the New River
Company. This liberality on the part of the New River Company is highly
appreciated by the inhabitants of this locality.