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 Hackney]
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DEATHS FROM EPIDEMIC DISEASES.
Year 1856. | Kensington. | Marylebone. | Hackney. | Shoreditch. | St. George's East.' | Whitechapel. | Bermondsey. | Lambeth. | Camberwell. | Lewisham. | Totals. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small Pox | 8 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 4 | 31 | 12 | 17 | 5 | 13 | 140 |
Measles | 93 | 101 | 39 | 49 | 11 | 12 | 56 | 74 | 58 | 20 | 513 |
Scarlatina | 62 | 106 | 51 | 110 | 78 | 45 | 64 | 150 | 27 | 24 | 717 |
Hooping Cough | 113 | 134 | 29 | 130 | 48 | 64 | 59 | 140 | 32 | 46 | 795 |
Diarrhœa | 154 | 164 | 65 | 108 | 52 | 81 | 63 | 113 | 29 | 36 | 865 |
Fever | 85 | 132 | 62 | 219 | 51 | 188 | 28 | 85 | 19 | 31 | 900 |
Totals | 525 | 651 | 259 | 629 | 244 | 421 | 282 | 579 | 170 | 170 | 3930 |
The relative proportions which the mortality from each of these
diseases bears to their total in Hackney is as follows— small pox 5 per
cent, measles 15.1 per cent, scarlet fever 19.7 per cent, hooping cough
ll.2per cent, diarrhoea 85.1 per cent, and fever 23.9. We thus
perceive that nearly one half of the deaths in Hackney from these
epidemic diseases were caused by diarrhœa and fever. I have introduced
this table to show that the outbreak of an epidemic disease in a
locality must depend more or less on local and therefore preventible
causes; as any atmospheric or other general cause acting alone, would
induce an outbreak over the whole Metropolis at one time.
The last mortuary table which 1 shall lay before you shows the
deaths from all causes, from epidemic diseases, from fever, per se the
percentages of deaths from epidemic diseases to all causes, fever to all
causes, and from fever as compared with the total of epidemic diseases.
1 have selected some of the most healthy and some of the most unhealthy
metropolitan districts for the purpose of comparison. It will be seen
to each 1000 deaths from all causes, those from epidemic diseases varied
in these districts between 170 and 2.12, the smallest number having
occurred in Camberwell, and the largest in Bermondsey. The districts
which presented an excess of deaths from epidemic diseases were
Shoreditch, St. Georges-in-the-East, Bermondsey, and Lewisham, and
those in which less than the average happened were Camberwell, Kennington,
Marylebone, Hackney, Whitechapel, and Lambeth. On the
other hand if we take the relative proportion of fever as a standard by
which to judge the salubrity of a district we shall find contrary to our
preconceived opinions, that Camberwell, Marylebone, Kensington, St.
Georges-in-the-East, Lambeth, and Lewisham, would be classed together
as unusually healthy, whilst Bermondsey, Hackney, Shoreditch, and
Whitechapel would be classed as unhealthy. Fever, however, by itself,