Public health in European capitals : Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Christiania, Stockholm, and Copenhagen / by Thomas Morison Legge.

  • Legge, Sir Thomas Morison, 1863-1932.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Public health in European capitals : Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Christiania, Stockholm, and Copenhagen / by Thomas Morison Legge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Present The total population of Paris at the census of SS7fthe'l89i was 2,386,232. From the report of Dr. city- Deschamps presented to the Municipal Council for the year 1894, it would appear that the health of the city had never been in so favourable a condition.1 The total death-rate has fallen from 25 '37 per 1000 in 1880 to 2i'8o in 1893. The mortality from epidemic diseases has never been so low as during last year, and what has been especially noticeable about the outbreaks is that they have been of exceedingly short duration. The accompanying diagram, extracted from the above report, shows in a graphic manner the diminution that has taken place in the deaths per 100,000 of the population from the principal zymotic diseases during the last three years, as compared with the mean for the preceding twenty years. Prevalence of Still there are certain points about some of Typhus Fever. the jnfectious diseases which must occasion anxiety to persons interested in hygiene at Paris. For in- stance, in 1893, typhus fever broke out in Paris at the depot of the Prefecture of Police, and almost immediately after in the prison of Nanterre. Indeed, cases of typhus fever, ot which France generally has been remarkably free for years, occurred in 1893 in more than a dozen towns in the north- west of France. The epidemic did not assume large pro- portions in Paris, but small recrudescences appeared at times again last year. The close connection of this disease with over-crowding and filth makes it one specially dreaded in large cities. That the disease did not spread more widely must be attributed to the degree of efficiency attained in disinfection by the service of the Etuves Municipales. In the spring of 1893, too, small-pox broke out so virulently, that it looked as though it would 1 Rapport presente par M, Deschamps sur tes services de Passai- nissement, etc. Conseil Municipal de Paris, 1894. Small-pox.