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

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Hackney 1885

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]

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5
and removed to and from the Hospital it has been a source of
infection to the neighbourhood, although in a much reduced
degree as compared with former years.
I now propose to lay before you the statistics for the past
and previous epidemic years, that is to say, from October 1st,
1883, to September 30th, 1884, and for the same period in
1884-8,5.

TABLE I.

Hackney.— Percentage of Cases of, and of Deaths from, Small-pox in different radii,1883-4and1884-5.

Radii.Percentage of Cases.Percentage of Deaths.Houses.
1883-41884-51883-41884-51883-41884-5
Quarter mile22.917.133.619.96.16.1
Between quarter & half-mile radii33.931.235.234.714.715.0
Totals within half a mile56.848.368.864.620.821.1
Between the half mile & mile radii25.627.216.817.331.431.6
Outside the mile radius17.624.514.428.147.847.4
Totals100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0

The table shows a very decided difference in the incidence of
Small-pox in the two years 1883-4 and 1884-5, between
October 1 and September 30, inclusive for each year. In
1883-84 the percentage of the total number of cases reported
to me from the quarter-mile radius of the Hospital was 22.9
against 171 in 1884-5, the number of houses contained in this
space being 6.l of the whole. In 1883-4 33.9 per cent. of all
the cases were reported to me amongst the persons living in the
space between the quarter and half-mile radii, against 31.2 in
1884-5; the proportion of houses in 1883-4 being 14.7, and in
1884-5, 15.0 per cent. of the whole, making 56.8 per cent. of