Brighton as a health resort / by Alfred Haviland.

  • Haviland, Alfred, -1903.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Brighton as a health resort / by Alfred Haviland. 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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    Taken as a whole, Brighton may be safely said to possess naturally two of the most essential requisites for a healthy site that any town can enjoy—a prevailing sea-wind, as shown by the wind-chart, and a well-drained subsoil, as illustrated by Mr Edward Easton, C.E., in his interesting paper read before the Brighton Health Congress last December.* Speaking of the natural drainage of the chalk, be remarked—“The geological formation is that of chalk with flints. The whole of the rainfall, except that absorbed by the vegetation, or given off by evaporation, percolates at once into the chalk, and has its chief outlet in the sea. Its chief outlet, because all round the base of the great escarpment, at the northern boundary of the Chalk Downs, there flow out springs, more or less copious, which are formed by the overflow of the great chalk reservoir when saturation has taken place.” Nature has provided Brighton with the two principal factors of a healthy climate, but we must remember what the poet has said—God made the country, but man the town did make.” And Brighton being essentially a large town, we must not expect to find in it an exceptionally low death rate, either from all causes generally or from the majority of particular causes. Still, in the sequel, it will be seen that this watering place holds a high place amongst its peers, and that its natural advantages have striven (on the whole) successfully, for many years during its rapid growth, with the faulty arrangement of some of its streets, alleys, and cul-de-sacs with which it is handicapped. By taking an average for ten or twenty years, full justice can generally be done as to the death-rates from different causes, and an estimate may be approximately formed of the healthiness, or otherwise, of any town. In rural districts, we can thus generally ascertain what diseases prevail, and what do not thrive in them. No reliance can be placed upon the statistics of a single year or season, and it were most unjust to condemn a watering place because it may be suffering from an imported epidemic. From the zymotic class of diseases, Brighton for the ten years 1861-70 had a mean annual death rate below the general average of the country, viz., 46'6—that of England and Wales being 47'6 to every 10,000 persons living. These figures show too narrow a margin to say that these diseases do not thrive there when once introduced. If a map of the registration district of Brighton is colored in the sub-districts of Kemp Town, The Palace, and St. Peter’s, in accordance with the respective rates of mortality, it will be seen where, the diseases principally thrive. The estimated populations in the middle of the year 1881 were :— Kemp Town 15,534 The Palace 21,210 St. Peter’s 62,988 Giving a total for the whole of 99,732 During the year 1881, there were 13 deaths from zymotic diseases in Kemp Town, or 0‘83 deaths to every 1,000 persons living, and 229 deaths from all causes, which gave a death-rate of 14'09 to every 1,000. In the Palace sub-district there were 18 deaths from zymotic diseases, or 0'84 per 1,000, and from all causes 277 deaths, equal to an annual death-rate of 13'01 per 1,000. In St. Peter's there were 178 deaths from zymotic diseases, or 2'66 per 1,000 living, and from all causes 1,394 deaths, equal to an annual death-rate of 22'13 per 1,000. The mean of these death-rates for the whole district would be for the zymotic diseases 1'66, and from all causes 16G1, which figures will compare favourably with those from many other watering places. Undoubtedly, during the last quarter of the year, scarlet fever, measles, and whooping cough have contributed largely to swell the death returns. It must be remembered that in St. Peter’s sub-district are to be found those labarynthine groups of streets to which I have drawn attention. I have shown elsewhere that such a soil and such a site as Brighton happily enjoys are not conducive to the development of the terrible disease “ cancer,” yet there is a high death-rate recorded of it in this Health Resort. This is easily accounted for. Brighton lies between two districts, Steyning and Lewes, where climatic and physical conditions obtain which have been found to be coincident with a high mortality from cancer. They are riparial districts traversed by the rivers Adur and Ouse, which seasonally flood their adjacent alluvial plains. Brighton has hospitals. and skilful surgeons, and these attract from without those suffering from this malady. Some return to their native home3, but more remain to die and swell the rate of mortality from this cause. I consider Brighton to be eminently calculated to prevent the development of cancer, and would recommend it in all cases where hereditary taint necessitates living in a locality that will prevent rather than promote its development. Brighton has been favorably known for many years for the happy effect of the climate on scrofulous cases, and although many are sent there too late and die there, still the death-rate from scrofula was below the general average, 42 to every 1,000, while that of England and Wales was 43. I now come to a most important disease—consumption— or as it is entered in the Registrar-General’s Returns—phthisis. During the ten years 1851-60, the death rates from this cause amongst females was just below the average for all England; whilst among males it was above the average. During the ten years, 1861-70, it had decreased among females aud was slightly increased amongst males. MALES. England. Brighton. 1851-60 25'8 32-8 1861-70 24-6 34-7 FEMALES. England. Brighton. 27-7 27-5 24-8 25'4 To every 10,000 living. * Transactions of the Brighton Health Congress, post free, 5s. John Beal and Co., Brighton.