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mortality, I may inform yon that the rate of death is highest during
that very early period of life when the child depends for nourishment
on its mother; so that, of a thousand male children in the first year of
life, there die within the district of the City of London Union, two
hundred and forty-two; within that of East and West London, two
hundred and seventy-six.
"The causes which thus decimate the young population of the
City of London, are the common conditions of district unhealthiness;
the conditions which it lies within the scope of sanitary legislation
to amend. But, inasmuch as the few days of these wretched
children are passed mainly within doors, so their high mortality
constitutes the readiest and least fallacious evidence of the unwholsomeness
of the dwellings in which they die; and hence I am
acquainted with no correcter material for estimating the sanitary
condition of a district than is afforded by the death-rate of its infant
population."
To conclude, Gentlemen. From what I daily witness I make bold
to state that this Vestry has a herculean task to perform, to abate
all the nuisances of Rotherhithe; nuisances which have grown
uninterrupted for ages, and have become inveterate customs with
many. When, however, we look at what has been done within the
last ten years in respect to the covering foul ditches, cleansing the
streets, water supply, and other improvements which have been
effected by the local authorities, before this present Act of Parliament
was ever thought of, have we not a right to hope that our parish
(the fag end of the metropolis, as it has been facetiously called,)
contains within itself energy and public spirit enough to place itself
on a level with other parishes, and effectively to carry out the great
sanitary movement which forms a new and remarkable era in the
annals of this country.
Yours respectfully,
6th May, 1856. W. MURDOCH.
FIFTH REPORT.
To the Vestry of the Parish of St. Mary, Rotherhithe.
Gentlemen,
Following up the regular and methodical examination of the various
houses in Rotherhithe announced in my last report, on the
21st May, I visited, with the Inspector, the west side of Love Lane,
from No. 26 to the north-western corner of the street. At No. 26,
(G. Bemis, tenant) the drainage has been carried into the new sewer,
and everything is in good order with the exception that there is no
water supply to the privy. At Nos. 37, 38, and 39, the drains run
into the Thames, they are all untrapped, and the privies have pans
without proper water supply. Notices have been served.