Report on the mortality of cholera in England, 1848-49.

  • Farr, William, 1807-1883.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the mortality of cholera in England, 1848-49. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Holl, after stiilinp: that three children who died in the workhouse had been brouj^ht from Tooting while under the influence of the disease, adds:— The woman, aged 64, (lied in the infirmary of the workhouse quite unconnected with that part of the house which the children occupied, and not allowed to have any communication with it. * Mr. Steib, the registrar of Hackney, registered two deaths from cholera in the same week. The former was a decided case of Asiatic cholera in a servant who belonged to the Islington poor-house, and had been brought to Hackney to nurse the sick children. The second was in a girl belonging to the Islington poor-house, who had been brought to Hackney from Drouet's Asylum, Tooting. In the week ending February 3rd, 9 out of 10 cases registered in Kensington town occurred in Jennings' Buildings. In the week ending February 24th, the deaths of the matron, the temporary matron, seven servants, and a girl aged 11, were registered at the Female Refuge for the Destitute, in St. Leonards, Shoreditch; and, in the same week, 16 deaths from cholera were registered in Warburton's Lunatic Asylum. A great number, then, of the deaths from cholera in the early stage of the epidemic occurred in institutions of various kinds. The work- house of Edmonton and the gaol of Hertford were attacked in January. Two parishes in Norfolk were attacked early in the year. A labourer's wife, aged 48, died of the disease on January 5th, at West Rudliam, where four more persons died, and 12 in East Rudham, before February 14th. Eleven of the 17 deaths were in labourers' families. The parishes are inland, and contained 1494 inhabitants in 1841. No other deaths from cholera occurred there. At Wakefield, in Yorkshire, there was a partial outbreak ; 19 deaths from cholera happened between the 9th and 24th of January, 16 of them in the House of Correction. In August the epidemic recurred in this house, and 86 deaths from cholera, 36 from diarrhoea, took place in the year. The epidemic, which began at Selby in the latter part of 1848, prevailed until February 5th, and was fatal to some persons at Goole. In the Union workhouse of Howden, cholera was fatal to 10 persons between January 5th and February iith. The epidemic was fatal at Gateshead in January and February; at Sunderland in March and April. The epidemic continued to prevail in Berwick-upon-Tweed; at Shore- houses, Spittal, a fisherman, his wife, and three children died of the disease between January 6th and 12th. In April the epidemic very much subsided, and only 107 deaths were referred to cholera in England. There were no deaths from the disease upon the 8th, 14th, and 26th ; the only days which enjoyed this exemption in the year. There were in the month only 9 deaths from cholera in London, and the mortality was chiefly in the north-western and northern divisions of England. In May the deaths from cholera were 327; the fatal period of the epidemic set in at Liverpool, and went on through June, vihen the deaths were 2046 in all England. South Wales was now suffering, and at the end of June the deaths from cholera rapidly increased in London. Some alarm was felt, but, practically, little progress was made in the sanatory defences of the country. This was adverted to in the Quarterly Return as well as the mortahty which the epidemic might cause :— The epidemic cholera, which reached England in October, 1848, andis now causing many deaths in London, Liverpool, and other places, will, it is true, increase the general mortality in the months of July, August, and September as it did before; but the ravages of cholera, of typhus, and of the insidious influenza, which threaten the country, may be greatly mitigated if the same talent and energy are applied to the im- provement of the public health, as have been applied to other great, undertakings in which England has engaged. Registration did not exist in 1832 ; but it appears from the returns then made to the Board.of Health, that in London 994 persons died of cholera in the first part of the epidemic, extending from February 14 to May 15, 1832; 4266 in the second part, AVr'^^-'^ ''■om June 15 to October 31; and 15 in November and December. Allowing for defective returns in 1832, it is not probable that the fatality of cholera will be greater in 1849 than it was then ; or that the danger will amount to more than * Notes (0 Weekly Table, January 20tli, 1849.