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47
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT.
TO THE BOARD of works for the st. saviour's
district.
Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you my Annual Report for the
year ending December 31st, 1891.
During the year there were registered 883 births, 449 beincr
males and 434 females. Of the births recorded 436 occurred
m St. Saviour s and 447 in Christchurch, the total exceeding
that of last year by one.
The total number of deaths registered was 836, distributed
as follows St. Saviour, 260; Christchurch, 338 ; and in outlying
institutions, 238. As they stand these figures are
equvalent to an annual death-rate of 30.77 per 1000 of the
population. After deducting .'50 deaths which occured in
Christchurch workhouse, but belonging to other districts, and
inquests held on the bodies of 16 persons found in the District,
but not belonging to it, the death-rate amounts to 29.08 per
Of the remaining deaths 50 owed their right to be considered
those of residents in this District from the fact that the
person had passed a single night within its boundaries. Every
one of these either came from a common lodging house or had
spent a night in Christchurch Workhouse prior to being sent to
St. Saviour's Infirmary, where they ultimately died.
Various reasons may be assigned for the great influx of the
extreme poor, the improvident and the vagrant. Ever since the
opening of the new Infirmary at Champion Hill there has been
a steady and increasing flow of social outcasts into the District,
attracted by the magnificent hospital accommodation and
scientific treatment to be found there. Again, for the greater
part of the year a well-meaning philanthropist nightly collected
these homeless specimens of humanity on the south side of
Blackfriars Bridge, giving each one at midnight an order for a
night's accommodation in a lodging-house, which was generally
situated in St. Saviour or Christchurch. As many of these
were ailing at the time of their admission to these retreats, the
keepers naturally sought to get rid of them as soon as possible,
with the result that the various Poor Law Institutions attached
to the District became their destination, where many of them
died. ,
In addition, several speculative enterprises, floated in the
name of Humanity and Christianity, have been establishe m
recent years within the District, which give a home for t the time
being to the nomadic section of the community. These refuges,
of course, cannot accommodate those who are sick; an as