View report page

4
neither does it result from any predisposing causes within the Hospital itself.
It is simply traceable to the fact that the applications for admission into this
Hospital have for some time past been so numerous, and so many persons
applying in the first instance as out-patients have been necessarily received
into the wards, that the beds have been to a great extent filled with the
most urgent cases, to the exclusion of others more capable of benefit from
hospital treatment.
"That this view of the question is correct, may be gathered from the
individual dates of the 54 deaths in three weeks, to which your letter refers.
" I find that of these deaths no less than 33 (or about 60 per cent, of the
entire number) occurred within the first 14 days after admission of the
patients, this number including 6 on the day of admission, and 13 between
the first and seventh day of residence."
It would appear, from the above remarks of the House Governor, that the
Hospital, which within the last six years has been greatly enlarged, is still
too small for the poor of the large population of this manufacturing district,
in which are congregated more of the working people than in any other
district in London ; and it is obvious, from the numerous applications for
admission into its wards, that the Hospital must either be still further
enlarged, or numerous urgent cases refused admittance.
The deaths in the Workhouse have been 64; viz., 41 males and 23
females. No death from epidemic disease occurred in this establishment.
The deaths from epidemic diseases in the entire District have been 114;
viz., 6 from measles, 2 from scarlet-fever, 18 from hooping-cough, 78 from
diarrhoea, 5 from fever, and 5 from choleraic diarrhoea. No death from
small-pox occurred among the patients belonging to this District who were
removed to the Hospital, consequently not a single death has occurred in
this District from that disease during the quarter. Two deaths from fever
occurred in the Fever Hospital, thus showing the mortality from fever to be
7 instead of 5, as above stated. Erysipelas was fatal to 6, pyemia to 6,
rheumatism to 1, croup to 9, and carbuncle to 1.
In the corresponding Quarter of the previous year the deaths from
epidemic diseases were 142 ; viz., 11 from small-pox, 12 from measles, 5
from scarlet-fever, 1 from diphtheria, 4 from hooping-cough, 99 from
diarrhoea, 7 from fever, and 3 from choleraic diarrhsea. To the 142 deaths
from epidemic diseases, must be added 11 deaths from small-pox which
occurred in the Small-Pox Hospital.
The deaths caused by diseases of the respiratory organs, exclusive of
consumption, have been 79 : of these, 29 were caused by bronchitis, 42 by
pneumonia, 4 by pleuritis, 1 by laryngitis, 1 by asthma, 1 by growths upon
the larynx, and 1 by spasm of the glottis. The deaths from diseases of the
respiratory organs were, in the corresponding quarter of the previous year,
only 48.