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us. In my own practice no severe case has come under observ???tion,
but two children, each two years of age, have been register
as having died from confluent variola.
The small pox has certainly much decreased iu Rotherhithe si???
public vaccinators have been appointed.
Notwithstanding the presence of this fearful malady, the Paris
has been for some months past, and still continues, remarkabl???
healthy.
The deaths in May were thirty-two—eight under the average, an
in the four weeks ending 24th May, only forty-two medical order
were granted, being about half the average number usually given i
four weeks.
It is a matter of public notoriety, that the sanitary condition ???
this Parish is gradually ameliorating. In the first three months ???
t he year 1858, there were two hundred and sixteen births, and on
hundred and sixty-six deaths in Rotherhithe, showing an increase ???
sixty. During the same period in 1859, namely, from January Is
to March 31st, there were registered two hundred and five births am
one hundred and sixteen deaths, showing an increase of eighty
nine.
Now if we compare the deaths only of the two periods, we shal
find that fifty more took place in the three first months of 1858 than,
in the same space of time in 1859, and that too among an increasing
population.
No general conclusions can be drawn from such a comparison, the
rise and fall of disease depending often upon causes unknown to
man, and perhaps we might be accused of taking to ourselves presumptuously
too much credit were I to say that the present desirable
state of things may in some measure be attributed to the better
drainage, better water supply, and to the slowly but steadily improvement
in the education of the lower classes, and good habits
therefrom resulting.
Yours respectfully,
June, 1859. W. MURDOCH.
FORTY-SECOND REPORT.
Gentlemen,
Complaints are repeatedly made to the officers of this Vestry of
the noxious gases and vapours arising from the Union Chemical
Works, near Union-road, Rotherhithe. Two products are fabricated
at those works, namely, sulphuric acid, and hydrochloric acid,