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[No. 8.
REPORT
ON THE
HEALTH OF PADDINGTON
DURING THE QUARTER ENDING
MICHAELMAS, 186 2,
BY J. BURDON SANDERSON, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE VESTRY.
Population of Paddington, April, 1861 75,807.
Vestry Hall; November, 1862.
In the thirteen weeks that ended Saturday, September 27th, 298 persons
died in Paddington, a number relatively smaller than any which has hitherto been
recorded. Of those who died the proportion who had not attained the age of
five years was also smaller than usual. These favourable facts are to be attributed
mainly to the coolness of the weather during the quarter,* and to the
consequent freedom of the air from septic contamination. Diarrhoea and all
those diseases which are dependent upon this cause have been far less prevalent
during the past season than in 1861. It will be recollected that in the corresponding
quarter of 1860, the state of the public health exhibited the same
favourable character, for a similar reason. In that year the number of persons
who died was less by five than during the past three months, but if due
allowance be made for the increase of the population which takes place in this
Parish at the rate of five per cent. per annum, it will be found that the salubrity
of the summer of 1860 has been considerably exceeded.
The gradual improvement in the health of the population, evidenced by
diminished bills of mortality, has been more marked of late years than at any
former period. The mean death-rate of London is nearly six per cent. less
than before the advent of Cholera in 1849, so that even if further progress
were to be arrested, an annual saving of 4000 lives would be effected in the
Metropolis. The vitality of the population falls far short indeed of that which
prevails in rural districts, but better results may be hoped for, for many salutary
changes are in progress, and some are on the eve of accomplishment. The
increased knowledge which has recently been obtained of the causes of pulmonary
diseases and of diarrhœa—the two largest contributors to the death-rates
of cities, has rendered more evident than ever, how contracted is the power of
cure, how almost unlimited the power of prevention. Such lessons however, can
only be made practical by the strict enforcement of sanitary regulations. In a
few years it may be hoped that they will be so familiarized, that less and less
compulsion will be needed, for it will become apparent that the wealthiest and
most influential individual must yield to the supreme law of public safety, and
that it is wisest even for those who are called to real sacrifices, to make a merit
of disinterestedness.
Besides the better observance of the laws of health in general, several
important measures of improvement, affecting the whole mass of the population,
have been carried out in the Metropolis during the last ten years, and are
now in partial or complete operation. Of the last, none has been more unquestionably
beneficial, than that which has been effected by the operation of the
Water Act of 1852. When the Act was passed, more than half of the
• In the autumn quarters of 1860-61-62, the mean temperature of the air was—56.8 in
1860, 60.4 in 1861, and 58.7 in 1862. In the hot summer of 1859, when Diarrhoea was so
fatal, the temperature rose to 62.9.