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REPORT.
Gentlemen,
In compliance with the requirements
of the Metropolis Local Management Act, I have the
honour to submit the Nineteenth Annual Report upon
the Public Health and Sanitary condition of the Hamlet
for the year ending March, 1875.
Having been deprived of the District Registrars'
returns since the 10th of October, 1874, I am not able
to supply as much statistical information of interest and
importance as usual, in relation to the public health;
many details are necessarily wanting, and in some cases
only can even the gross numbers be given, without
being able to state the causes of death from different
diseases. The number of deaths from the seven principal
zymotic diseases I have however obtained from the
Registrar General's printed returns. The most serious
consequence of the loss of the district Registrars'
weekly returns has been my inability to obtain through
any other channel a regular and reliable knowledge of
the existence of epidemic diseases and the locality where
prevailing, for although this information was "post
mortem," and often many days after the occurrence of
such deaths, still it was a most valuable guide, when
scarcely any other was available, by which we were enabled
to enforce sanitary measures and prevent as far as
possible the extension of disease. This source of information
has been entirely suppressed, and apparently can
only be restored by some arrangement between the
registration officers and the Vestry. Be this as it may,
the loss of the use of these documents is a serious matter,
and prevents much good practical sanitary work being
done in places where most needed, where disease