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31
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT,
1865.
Report on the Health of the Parish of St. Martin-in-theFields
for the Year ending 25th March, 1865.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of my Report for
the year 1865, is, that the number of deaths exceed
that of the births, the former being in number 624,
while the latter was only 551. The deaths exceed those
of any year since 1859; and the births are fewer than
for the last ten years. It was not from epidemic
diseases that the excessive mortality was caused, for
they were less by 44 than in the preceding year.
Whooping-cough was the most fatal among this class
of diseases, no doubt influenced, as all other diseases of
the respiratory organs were, by the very cold and
ungenial winter. There were 85 deaths from consumption,
and 110 from other diseases of the lungs,
making a total of 213 from affections of the breathing
organs, or more than one-third of the total number.
The great mortality of the year is also evidenced in
the deaths of 221 children under 5, being also more
than one-third of the total number, which is above the
average in our Parish, and greatly above the average
in country districts; but below the average of some
more overcrowded districts. The locality of the Parish
of St. Martin is not unhealthy, at least it ought not to