London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

St James's 1871

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St James's, Westminster]

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40
the Berwick Street district of the Parish is the most
thickly populated in London.

Table: Table of Zymotic Disease for 17 Years.

Table of Zymotic Disease for 17 Years.

Name of Disease.18551856185718581859186018611862186318641865186618671868186918701871
Small Pox35..• •441121..2132..318
Measles75131038817924291719171114136
Scarlet Fever and Dipth.271613293116326631132030931397514
Whpg. Cough6026261822344733222917213421431219
Diarrhœa111531122051013201515191817132628
Typhus and Typhoid Fev2212101613213814107761074
Cholera......................8........1
Total1307993701218010913512610081105888811913690

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These figures show, most incontestably, the
benefit of vaccination; for whilst more than half
of those who were unvaccinated, died, only one in
eight of those who were vaccinated, died. I would
here remark, that it is very difficult, frequently, to
ascertain whether a person has been vaccinated,
after Small Pox has broken out, and the reports of
patients and friends are not always wholly to be
relied on.
Although we should be careful in drawing conclusions
from the result of a small number of cases,
I would refer you to the report of the managers of
the Metropolitan Asylum District, just issued, with
regard to the cases of Small Pox treated in their
several hospitals during the Small Pox epidemic of
1870-1-2.
This report, which contains a series of tables
embracing a most complete analysis of all the cases