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

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Hackney 1871

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]

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11
streets around the Hospital there happened 73 cases in 1000
inhabitants, whilst in the other streets enumerated in the list,
which are of a similar character, or nearly so, to those at
Homerton, there were 19 cases in each 1000 inhabitants. To
carry the comparison further I collected in one group all the
other streets in which the disease had prevailed most severely,
some of which are the worst in this district as regards the poverty
of the residents and the bad structural condition of the houses,
and compared the results with those just stated. I then found
that in those there were 90 cases amongst 1980 people residing
in 339 houses, or at the rate of 45 cases in 1000 inhabitants
against 73 in the same number at Homerton.* This result is
what I expected at the time it wa3 proposed to build the
Hospital on its present site, as I believe the number congregated
in the wards to be too great to be contained in any one building
or any aggregation of contiguous buildings. The cubical space for
each patient is sufficient, especially as the wards are well ventilated,
but it must not be forgotten that the free ventilation
which renders the wards healthful for the patients, may also
assist in carrying the disease to those outside the building. I
believe in ordinary (i.e.) non-epidemic years, the number in the
Hospital will not be injurious to the district, but I am most .
decidedly of opinion that so large a number as were usually to
be found in the wards last year ought never again to be placed
there, but that arrangements should be made for preventing so
great an influx of patients. A similar remark may be made as
regards the Fever Hospital, which in my opinion should never
be filled in any epidemic of Fever as the Hospitals were with
Small Pox cases in 1871.
As a very large number of cases have been brought to the
Hospital from other districts,, and a corresponding proportion of
* See appendix, Table I.