[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lewisham].

  • Lewisham (London, England). Board of Works.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lewisham]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    20/31 (page 17)
    17 Lewisham— One scarlatina maligna, Mid Kent Cottage. One ditto, ditto. One diarrhoea, Silver Street. Sydenham— One diarrhoea, Wells Road. One ditto, West Kent Park. Ono carbuncle, pyaemia, Rutland Terrace. Seventeen deaths have occurred in thoso whose age had not reached ten years, five in those above fifty, five in those above sixty years, and four in those above seventy years. With regard to the health of the district, I have to report upon the existence of many cases of fever in Lewisham; the existence of a generally mild form of scarlet fever, and inflammatory sore throat in several parts of the district (the latter occasioned by the humid state of the atmosphere), and mumps endemic at the North Surrey School at Anerley. The fever at present prevalent at Lewisham, has, in former years, always spread; and Mr. Stott, the Medical Officer of the Lewisham Poor Law District, informs me that he attributes the fact of the disease not spreading on this occasion to the great improvements which have, comparatively at a recent date, been made in the drainage of the place, an opinion in which I fully concur; but the very existence of this disease indicates that, though much has been done to purify the atmosphere in the neighbour hood of our homes, and render the supply of drinking water easy of access and of a pure quality, yet, still much remains to be done, and I believe that we must never be satisfied until every court, alley, and street is rendered dry, and every house made to communicate directly with the sewer; I say directly, as many houses, supposed to be drained, still retain receivers, or cesspools; and others only communicate with the sewers through the medium of old drains, occasionally constructed in the ditches which existed, and still do exist, although covered over. Several neighbourhoods require improvement:—Sandwcll Place, Lewisham. In some families residing hero constant ill-health is kept up by the want of proper drainage. Montpelier Row, Blackheath; Paragon Mews, Wells Road; and West Kent Park, Sydenham. The drainage of Ravensbourne Villas, Stanstead Lane, is very defective. The road at back of Forester Inn, leading to Hindsley's Place, Sydenham, is in a dangerous and offensive state. Water supply is still urgently required by many of the inhabitants of this district. Meteorological tables and tables of mortality are appended as usual. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. Week ending. Weight of air. Barometer corrected. Mean inches. Temperature of Air. Thermometer. Prevailing winds. Rainy days. Amount of rain in inches. Highest. Lowest. Mean of daily readings. Aug. 27 29.861 91.3 66.6 66.6 N.W.&S.W. 1 0.25 Sept. 3 29.600 76.9 57.5 57.5 S.W. 3 0.33 10 29.841 72.0 58.0 58.0 s.w. 3 0.35 17 29.658 73.2 53.8 53.8 Variable 4 0.83 24 29.652 76.0 56.5 56.5 S.W. 3 0.64