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

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St Martin-in-the-Fields 1860

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Martin-in-the-Fields]

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31
Quarterly Report, from October to December, 1860.
In the last quarter of the year there have been 151
eaths, which is about the average; the corresponding
???arters of 1858 and 1859 the numbers were 144 and
48; so that we have reached the average, although the
first month of the quarter was remarkably healthy,
he number of new eases of disease was 272, while in
be same period of last year there were only 187. The
most prevalent and fatal epidemic of the quarter has
been measles, from which cause there have been 6 deaths;
and although scarlatina numbers 8 deaths in the
???uarter, this desease has been less prevalent than
???easles, but being always of a more malignant character,
above get a larger number of deaths from a smaller number
of cases. Indeed measles occurring in healthy children
ought not to be very fatal, and you will find from
he localities of all the deaths from measles that they
lave occurred in children whose parents have not
possessed the means necessary to keep up the standard
of health, those means which enable our constitution
to resist the inroad of disease; three of the deaths
from measles occurred in Bedfordbury, and one in Pipe
Makers' Alley.
There is a practice common at this season of the
year, which being indirectly injurious to health, I
think I may allude to,—it is the throwing down of salt
upon the snow ; the mixture of salt and snow engenders
so intense a degree of cold, that few boots and shoes
can resist, and I need not say that cold and damp feet
are injurious to health. The only justifiable use of salt
is to destroy slides and slippery places, and if every
policeman by this means destroyed slides many broken
limbs would be prevented. A highly respectable inhabitant
of our parish has thus had the misfortune to
break his arm ; and there have been more cases of
broken bones from falls in the streets taken to the
Hospitals than in any former winters.

Causes of Death in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the Fields for the Quarter ending June 30, 1860.

0-5.5 to 20.20 to 40.40 to 60.60 to 80.80 UpwardsTotal.
Measles3..........3
Scarlatina4..........4
Whooping Cough5..........5
Diarrhœa2..........2
Mesenteric Disease6..........6
Cancer......12..3
Dropsy......12..3
Consumption14810....22
Water on the Brain4..........4
Mortification......1....1
Apoplexy....121..4
Paralysis......2....2
Disease of Brain22....1..5
Convulsions2..........2
Disease of Heart1..641..12
Bronchitis3....24..9
Pneumonia2..221..7
Asthma......11..2
Disease of Bowels..1121..5
„ Liver......23..5
„ Kidney1..12....4
„ Joints, &c11........2
Debility from birth9..........9
Teething4..........4
Old age........13..14
Burns1....1....2
Suicide............1
Drowned..11......2
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