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

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City of London 1866

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London, City of]

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24
population, or the annual value of their houses, as
is observed between the mortality by cholera, and
the elevation of the ground on which the people
live."
But although it is difficult to obtain an exact
account of the density of the population, and their
social condition, there can be no doubt that poverty,
filth, and overcrowding, have much to do with the
intensity of the disease. Even in the City of London
the differences in the moan mortality of the
disease in the several Unions are due in great
part to differences in social condition, for in the
central district, where the population is generally
well to do, the average death-rate during the last
three epidemics was only 19 per 10,000 of the
population, while in the Eastern and Western
Unions it ranged from 28 to 55 per 10,000—the
average being 42. Looking also at the districts of
Islington, Hackney, Clerkenwell, Kensington, and
St. George's, Honover Square, where the population
is chiefly of the better class, and comparing
them with the districts of St. Giles, Shoreditch,
Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, and St. George's-inthe-East,
where the poor arc congregated, it will be
seen that, independently of elevation, there are other
causes in operation, which make the death-rate of
the one but 17 in the 10,000, while the others
range from 40 to 67 in the 10,000.