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9
In Guy's Hospital 28 persons died, chiefly from tho effects of accident,
but none of these persons had any previous residence in
this District.
The number of Coroners' inquisitions amounted to the unusual
mamber of 48. As most of these deaths were sudden, accidental, or
'the result of violence, they were not of a character to be affected by
Jthe operations of this Board.
The deaths in the Workhouse numbered 78 ; being 24 fewer than
tin the preceding year. This is a smaller mortality than has hitherto
rfbeen recorded in my annual reports, and conclusively proves the
ihealthiness and good management of that establishment.
The Workhouse of St. Saviour's Union has for many years maintained
a high place in a sanitary point of view, and has not for a
long period suffered from epidemic disease, except in a very few
cases introduced from without. I refer to these matters somewhat
emphatically, because I understand it is contemplated bringing the
St. Saviour s District under the operation of Mr. Hardy's Act, and
uniting it with two other large parishes for the purpose of forming a
Sick Asylum at some distance from the Union. As the class of inmates
now occupying workhouses is of a character so different from that
for which they were primarily built, it is not surprising that, in
many cases, as hospitals for tho sick, they are, to use the common
phraseology, now unsuitable to the requirements of medical science.
But where workhouses have very recently been improved and adapted
to the treatment of tho sick, the necessity for the disturbance of
arrangements which have proved successful is at least doubtful.
Leaving out of consideration tho question of expense, which is a
matter for the ratepayers rather than for your Medical Officer, I have
very grave doubts as to the expediency of congregating large numbers
of the diseased on one spot, and carrying them away from then* accustomed
place of abode, and consequently from their friends. It is
well known to those who are accustomed to relieve the poor that, as
a rule, they who have the greatest reluctance to avail themselves of
the many comforts a workhouse affords to the sick, are precisely the
most deserv ing to receive them ; and if the difficulty is increased by
removing them from their friends, their reluctance will be increased
also. The poor of this class only avail themselves of its advantages
in the last extremity, and seek refuge in the workhouse when nature
is fast giving way, and when their end would be hastened by a removal
to a distant and probably an unknown locality.
The most serious difficulties sanitary officers have to encounter are
insufficient house accommodation, both in reference to space and
ventilation ; and an intermittent and impure water supply. As a
partial remedy for the first of these evils, Parliament, on the 31st of
July last, passed " An Act to provide better Dwellings for Artizans