London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Whitechapel 1885

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel]

This page requires JavaScript

7
Thus whilst our zymotic deaths are fewer, those diseases (such
as are found in the constitutional and respiratory classes) which are
attributable to exposure and carelessness are above the Metropolitan
average. Zymotic diseases, which are responsible for 197 deaths of
District residents, include 12 from small-pox; 50 from measles; 16
from scarlet fever; 1 from typhus-fever; 5 from entric fever; 36 from
whooping cough; and 50 from diarrhœa.
The following Table is compiled from the corrected Returns
published by the Registrar-General for the year 1885.

The Districtsare those comprised in the East District of London:—

name of district.Proportion per 1000 of Deaths from Zymotic Diseases to total Deaths from all causes.
Whitechapel129.5
Bethnal Green164.2
Poplar160.6
St. George's-in-the-East182.0
Stepney172.5
Mile End Old Town186.3
Shoreditch169.3

Included in the 50 diarrhcea deaths were 43 cases of infantile
diarrhoea, and respecting this disease I have collected a few interesting
particulars. They were registered in the Sub-Districts as follows:
in the Spitalfields, 11 cases; in the Mile End New Town, 8; in the
Whitechapel Church, 14; in the Goodman's Fields, 7; and in the
Aldgate, 3. Foreigners lost 27 infants, whilst of the children born of
natives of the United Kingdom only 16 died; a very important
matter when the relative proportion of foreigners to British is
considered: 29 were males, 14 were females. An investigation into
the mode of feeding these infants brought out these facts, that 6 were
altogether naturally fed, and these enjoyed an average life of over one
year; 14 were fed partly naturally and partly artificially, and these
infants lived an average of 8 months; 23 were altogether fed upon
various descriptions of food, including often meat and vegetables, and
these poor children, too surely born only to die, survived on an average
less than 6 months. That these deaths occur most chiefly during the