London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Bethnal Green 1878
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green]
This page requires JavaScript
In the following table is shewn the percentage of each one of these on the total number of Zymotic deaths, including those in hospital.
TABLE F.
| Small Pox | 10.47 per cent., | or 1 in 9.54 deaths. |
| Measles | 11.23 ,, | „ 8.89 „ |
| Scarlatina | 12.95 | 7.72 „ |
| Diphtheria | 2.66 | ,, 37.50 ,, |
| Whooping Cough | 30.57 | 2.73 ,, |
| Fever | 9.71 | 10.29 „ |
| Diarrhoea | 15.23 | 6.56 „ |
| Cholera | 1.12 „ | „ 84.33 „ |
SMALL POX.
(Decennial average 78).
334 cases of this disease were reported to us as
having occurred in the parish, 22 of these died in
their own homes, while 188 were removed to the Small
Pox hospital, of whom 33 died.
Of the 22 deaths in the parish two only were returned
as vaccinated, one other was entered as vaccinated too
late, another as ten days after vaccination, and a third,
aged two years, as twice unsuccessfully vaccinated ; all
three I have classed as unvaccinated. In the remaining
cases the death certificates contained no information
upon the point; the reason for this probably is,
that as a rule medical men do not like to record a
death from Small Pox after vaccination, unless they
are reasonably convinced of the fact, and as efficient
vaccination always leaves a well marked cicatrix, we
are justified in maintaining a discreet silence if such
cicatrix be not visible, although the parents may