Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]
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In estimating the relative proportion borne by the
several classes of disease, in the causation of the
mortality proper to this parish, it becomes necessary to
exclude Class 3 (Diseases of the Brain and Nervous
system) from consideration, for the same reasons as
those which has been referred to as principally disturbing
the determination of the death-rate, viz., the
mortality of the County Lunatic Asylum, which alone
formed 18.5 per cent. of all deaths. The first in order of
fatality, exclusive of Class 3, was as usual, Class 1 (the
Zymotic Epidemic—Contagious) forming 19 per cent.
of all deaths. The second, closely approximating the
preceding in fatality, was Class 5 (Diseases of the Respiratory
Organs), forming 18.3 per cent. Of this class
Bronchitis was the most fatal, and indeed was the most
fatal of all diseases, forming nearly 12 per cent. of all
deaths, and thus occupying the position usually held by
Consumption, which formed 9 per cent. only. Class 2
(The Tubercular, which includes Scrofula and Consumption)
was the next, and formed a little over 12 per
cent. The other classes do not exhibit any variation
requiring comment; the most noticeable feature in the
table being, as in the year preceding, the numerical
preponderance, although by no means to the same
extent, of diseases of the epidemic class, and of diseases
of the organs of respiration over their respective averages.
Age at death.—Infant Mortality.—Upwards of 23
per cent. of all deaths occurred to infants during their
first year of life; 37 per cent. and upwards to children
under 5 years of age, and upwards of 46 per cent. to
persons under 20 years of age.
Senile Mortality,—23 deaths were registered as
having resulted from natural decay alone; but 56 deaths,
or upwards of 11 per cent., took place above the age of
70; viz., from 70-75, twenty-four; 75-80, eighteen;
80-85, nine; 85-90, four ; and one at the age of 91.