[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr].

  • St. George the Martyr (Southwark, London, England). Parish Council.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1863. 13 the air was 26.7°, 9.3° below the average of the same week in 43 years. Cold is destruc tive; under its influence Nature becomes torpid and dumb. The frost which braces the nerves of the hardy and strong, chills the veins of the aged and weakly. It shakes them into their graves, as the autumnal winds shake from off the trees the fruit fully ripe. And not only do the aged suffer during this rigorous period, but the young also, and those who are labouring under organic disease, especially of the heart and lungs. These diseases affect alike the respiration, and circulation, producing that state of system, which yields helplessly to the depressing influence of cold. And it is in the night undoubtedly that the respiratory organs are most frequently injured, when the water freezes in the bed.rooms of houses that are not warmed by fires, or by warm air diffused by Dr. Arnott's and other admirable inventions. TABLE 3. LUNG DISEASES, INCLUDING PHTHISIS. 1859—60 1860—1 1861—2 1862—3 1863—4 Phthisis 210 173 194 197 222 Bronchitis 130 105 108 139 203 Pneumonia 86 90 78 94 106 There have been recorded 338 deaths from lung diseases, excluding Consumption; 203 were caused by bronchitis, which were 64 in excess of those of the preceding year; and 106 by pneumonia, 12 in excess. Consumption has been fatal in 222 cases. This disease, which is always far ahead in its fatality of all others, has been closely followed by bronchitis. It pursues its career in spite of all the attention that has been paid to it, and in spite of the numerous remedies that have from time to time been extolled as beneficial. Doubtless it has been somewhat checked, by the partial removal of the earlier causes which give rise to it. The means of prevention of those diseases that undermine the constitution, and which induce a feeble and deteriorated condition of the body, so frequently followed by deposition of tubercle must be diligently sought after; and none are more powerful to this end than zymotic diseases. To no kind of Sanitary measures writes Dr. Aitken are we more indebted for this result than to the influence of vaccination, in diminishing small pox—a disease which of all others seems to have tended to the developement of tubercular cachexia as a sequel to its existence. We must remember, that thousands are destroyed from this disease by the kind of occupation followed, and thousands more will be sacrificed before any remedial means can be found, or, put into operation when found: for strange to say, the workmen do not desire to have their trades made more healthy, lest they should become over.crowded, and wages lessened: they prefer high wages and a short life; and in some trades a man is old at 40 years. Draining, cleansing, and the like, important as they are, do not exhaust all the requirements of sanitary science. Luxury claims its victims, and it finds them ready. Death is in the painting of our walls, in the gilding of our cornices, in the manufacture of our mirrors, in the weaving of our drapery, and in many other of the trades by which our works of art and conveniences are supplied. There is also an increase in deaths from Zymotic diseases; these out.number by 73 those of the year 1862—3. Typhus has been fatal in 113 cases: 25 more have been destroyed than in the previous year. In all London there have been registered 3,019 deaths; hence this district has not suffered alone. There exists cause for discouragement
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