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APPENDIX No. 1.
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
From the 1st April, 1875, to 31st March, 1876.
The Vestry of the Parish of Rotherhithe, Surrey.
Gentlemen,
The course of legislation, in perfecting our sanitary laws, has made
some progress by adding to the number "The Artizans' Dwellings Act, an Act of
Parliament which, in some districts of the Metropolis, seems well adapted to assist the
efforts we are making to improve the habitations of the poor. Hitherto it has not been
considered advisable to employ its operation in this Parish, nevertheless, in this department
of sanitary labour a considerable amount of work has been done; many houses
apparently unfit for human habitation have been repaired and cleansed and thereby
converted into suitable dwellings, and the old and decayed houses in Hanover Street,
which had long been considered unfit for human beings to dwell in and occasioned
many a strife between the Vestry and the lessee, have at length been demolished and
several convenient houses erected on the old site.
Diseases of the Zymotic class invariably contribnte largely to the total number
of deaths, and nearly all the fatal cases occur under five years of age; the annual
average number during the last ten years is about one hundred and ten, but one hundred
and forty-three deaths have been occasioned by some of the most important
diseases of this class during the year ending March 31st, 1876.
In the present state of our knowledge, it is not possible to determine the cause
of the fluctuations we observe in the occurrence and varying intensity of epidemic
diseases, and on this occasion I can only account for the increase in the number of
deaths from these causes, partly to the increasing population of the Parish, but chiefly
to the unusual prevalence of Scarlatina, which destroyed the live of fifty-eight
children.