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

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Hackney 1860

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]

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6
have grouped them into classes as the mortality from each individual
disease has been given in the Quarterly Reports.

TABLE V.

Deaths in 1860.

1st Qr2ndQr3rd Qr4thQrTotalsper centages.
1860.1859.1858.1857.
Zymotic Diseases7946567825916.823.021.919.8
Diseases of uncertain scat17162117714.64.54.75.4
Tubercular Diseases7460665925916.815.914.7185
Diseases of the N ervous System6857404621113.714012.410.9
Heart24292024976.33.84 53.9
Lungs, &c12159317428518.514116.216.9
Stomach, &c18141212563.65.85.64.8
Kidney, &c7477251.62.21.61.6
from Childbirth3323110.71.00.71.3
of the Bones, Joints, &c3140.30.40.30.5
Skin22o.i0.3010.2
Malformation2460.40.1010.1
Premature Birth and Debility15131184730314.22.5
Atrophy8334181.21.01.41.7
Old Age283622231097 16.87.17.2
Sudden Death311160.40.82.11 6
Deaths from Violence and Accidents20181622764.9302.42.8
Not specified0.3
4903623083821542100.100.100.100.

This Table shows, that for the first time since there have been
records of the causes of death kept separately for this district, the
ratio of deaths from epidemics has been smaller than that of deaths
from pulmonary diseases. Hitherto the number of deaths from
this group of diseases has been considerably in excess of any other,
but during 1860 the rate was as small as l6.8 per cent, of the total
mortality, in other years having been 198, 21.9, and 230 per
cent, respectively. This great decrease was caused partly by the
diminution of deaths from fever, but chiefly, as I shall presently
show, from diarrhoea. Another remarkable feature of the Table
is, that the mortality from zymotic diseases was greatest during the
first instead of the third quarter as usual, which happened from
the very unusual weather which then prevailed.
The largest mortality from any one class of disease arose from
affections of the lungs, 285 deaths or 18'5 percent, having been registered
as from these causes, against 169 per cent, in 1857,162 per
cent, in 1858, and 14" I per cent, in 1859. Tubercular affections, including
consumption, caused precisely the same number of deaths
as zymotic diseases, viz.:—259 or 16.8 per cent. Diseases of the
nervous system have again produced a large number of deaths,