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14
grove, Surveyor to the Hackney District, sections and plans of which I
append hereto. Its modus operandi will be found described in a report to
the Hackney Board of Works, dated Nov. 11th, 1858.
mortality.
.4
The details of mortality and sickness in the Fulham District during the
year 1858, compared|with other districts, have been of a favorable character.
The total number of deaths has been 773, of which 347 occurred in
Fulham, and 426 in Hammersmith. The Lunatic Asylums have contributed
11; the Union House, 77; and Nazareth House, the Convent of the
Good Shepherd, and the Reformatory, blythe Lane, 22. The number of
Inquests has been 81.
An epidemic named Diphtheria, hascut off large numbers of the people in
London and various other parts of the kingdom during the last few mouths,
but it will be satisfactory to you to know that whilst Paddington,
Kensington, Belgravia, and other richer parishes have suffered, we have
enjoyed comparative immunity from its attacks. Very few cases have been
brought under my notice, and only three deaths have actually occurred
from this malady within our limits; it has, however, shewn itself among
us, and throat affections have been more than usually prevalent.
Diseases of the Zymotic class have furnished 137 to the number
of deaths. No fever of a dangerous character has prevailed, except
in Palace Place, at Fulham, where during the autumn months several cases
of a Typhoid type occurred. The houses for the most part were in good
sanitary condition, but the existence and condition of the Bishop's Moat at
the rear appeared to have been the exciting cause of the outbreak.
infant mortality.
The returns of last year still show the fearful mortality arising in the
infant portion of the population, and every source of this devastating
influence cannot be too scrupulously analyzed and made known. I have
already, in my various reports, forcibly laid before the public many of the
causes which are in operation to produce this sad result, but more have yet
to be unravelled.
It is true that of the 63,882 deaths which occurred in London during
1858, the causes were specified in 63,027 instances, nearly all of which,
according to the Registrar-General's Returns, were certified by the medical
attendants, by the medical officers of institutions, or by the coroners; but
this does not disprove the fact that there is a large mortality arising from
diseases which, although not ranked amongst the preventible, prove fatal
from wilful neglect, or maltreatment of premonitory symptons. In a large
number of instances, especially amongst the poor, and particularly as
regards chest affections, the prescribing chemist has charge of the cases
during their early and more curable stages, and it is only when the little
stock of ready money is exhausted, or the unchecked malady has aroused
the fears of both the friends and ignorant prescriber, that the properlyeducated
medical man is sought for, perchance just time enough to close
the eyes of the little sufferers, and pronounce, in his certificate, the
ostensible cause of death.