Report on the cholera outbreak in the parish of St. James, Westminster, during the autumn of 1854 / presented to the Vestry by the Cholera Inquiry Committee.

  • Saint James (Westminster, London, England : Parish). Cholera Inquiry Committee.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the cholera outbreak in the parish of St. James, Westminster, during the autumn of 1854 / presented to the Vestry by the Cholera Inquiry Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    even in the remotest streets, it must be remarked that, though the attacks were few, the period of greatest activity corresponded with that of the principal outburst, and indeed with that of the highest Cholera mortality throughout the rest of London (see Table, p. 14). There was, moreover, a small simultaneous outburst in Rotherhithe. There yet remain several characteristics of this visitation, which may here be noticed, as tending either to associate it with or distinguish it from other less severe and sudden outbreaks of the disease. In the first place it may be remarked, that in 1854, though the epidemic visited the same streets as in 1832 and 1848-9, it did not limit itself so precisely to its old localities as is often observed. A coincidence in the localities affected is perhaps more marked in regard to the straggling cases on the outskirts of and beyond the Cholera area than in the heart of that district. We are informed by Dr. Fraser that in the whole parish identical houses were visited in only 11 instances, out of about a total, as we estimate, of 350 in which fatal attacks occurred. On the contrary, entire streets in the centre, of the affected area, as Broad Street, Silver Street, Cambridge Street, Pulteney Court and New Street, in which no deaths from Cholera occurred in 1848-9, suffered the most severely in 1854. Certain apparent eccentricities or preferences of localization, such as are very common in Cholera visitations, displayed themselves here also. For