[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District].

  • St. Giles (London, England). District Council.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 In compiling the following tables, correction of the registered mortality has been made for each district by adding to it the deaths of all persons (so far as known) who after removal from the district died in the public institutions of neighbouring parishes, and by subtracting from the registered mortality of each district the deaths of those extra-parishioners whe died in its public insti tutions. Until 1860, the only correction of this kind required for St. Giles, was an addition in respect of its parishioners dying in hospitals outside the limits of the district; but in 1865, a subtraction has had to be made from the regis tered mortality of 95 children who, having no previous connexion whatever with the district, died within a short time of their admission into the Infants' Home, 35, Great Coram Street. To a consideration of these deaths, a special heading will be presently devoted. In the mean time, in all statements respecting cause and localization of disease, fallacy from this and every other avoidable source will be excluded. Of the 1596 persons whose deaths are reckoned in the corrected mortality of St. Giles's, 823 were males and 773 females. Of those dying in hospitals, the excess on the side of males was not so marked as usual, sixty males and fifty females from St. Giles's, having died during the year in hospitals. The average age of persons dying in St. Giles's in 1865, was (after exclu sion of the Infant Home children) scarcely 29 years,—about the age noted in former years. Excluding children dying under the age of two years, the age at death averaged nearly 43 years, or slightly higher than usual. Section III.— On the Causes of Death in St. Giles's District in 1865. In accordance with the plan of former reports, an examination of the causes of death in St. Giles's in 1865 has been made, and the number of per sons actually dying from each sort of disease, has been compared with the number which, at the current rate of mortality in the whole of London, would have been calculated to have died out of the St. Giles's population. On the best computation that can be made, St. Giles district, in 1865, contained one 55.45th part of the population of London within the limits of the Registrar General. Dividing the total mortality of London from each cause by 55.45, we have therefore the quota of deaths which would fall on our dis trict if the same rate of death from each cause prevailed therein as in the town at large. But between this estimated number and the actual mortality there are many great and instructive differences. The comparison is made in the opposite table, and in table IV of the appendix, where the four quarters of 1865 are separately examined. The gross mortality of St. Giles from all causes has been shown to have been considerably above the mean of the metropolis in 1865. The table shows that the excess (after correction for hospitals) amounts to 271 deaths in the year, so that six persons died in St. Giles for every five who died out of an equal population in the average of London. In four out of the five classes of disease, the excess of mortality of St. Giles over the mean of London will be observed. In the class of developmental disease, however, which comprehends the disorders incident to function at various ages of life, there is no notable difference between our district and the average of the town. The four other classes require separate consideration. Of the zymotic disorders the most important members are examined at the foot of the table. Smallpox, measles, scarlatina, and croup were not so preva lent with us as elsewhere; but three members of the class, more important than these as regards the numerical amount of their fatality, were in notable excess in St. Giles. Whooping cough produced 75 deaths instead of its quota