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17
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT,
1878.
Annual Report on the Health of the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-
Fields, for the Year 1878.
To the Vestry of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour of submitting to you my
Ninth Annual Report on the health and sanitary
condition of the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
The year 1878 has been a healthy one, although tli
deaths have been higher. This increased mortality is
attributable to the larger number of deaths in the
Charing Cross Hospital, which Institution having
recently enlarged its accommodation for patients, has
naturally increased the death-rate of the Hospital.
Smallpox was not so prevalent this year as in the
previous one; no death has occurred in the Parish
from this malady, therefore we may hope that the
epidemic is fast subsiding. In every case that came to
my knowledge 1 visited the house and gave instructions
for the prevention of the spreading of the disease, and
when the patient had recovered, the apartment, bedlinen,
and clothes were thoroughly disinfected by your
late Sanitary Inspector, Mr. Hunt.
That portion of Bedfordbury condemned under the
“Artizans' Dwellings Act,” still remains in statu quo,
but I trust shortly the demolition of these miserable
habitations will commence in earnest, and that dwellings
will be raised, in place of these wretched hovels,
more fitted for the abode of human beings.