Report of the Medical Officer of Health and Public Analyst for the year 1899.

  • Stoke Newington (London, England). Parish. Vestry.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

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

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health and Public Analyst for the year 1899. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    29 Consumption is a common cause of pauperism, for it leads to a tremendous loss of labour each year and sufferers come upon the rates in considerable numbers, many finding their way to the work house infirmaries with the disease in a hopelessly advanced stage. These latter constitute a great danger to the other inmates, and doubt less sometimes spread infection, It would, therefore, be well if Boards of Guardians made special provision for housing such cases quite apart from others. Power might be obtained for different boards to combine for such a purpose as well as to make some provision for the isolation and treatment of the disease in its earlier stages, with the view to cure. Expenditure for such purposes would in all probability prove a profitable investment of public moneys, and, for certain, a valuable public health measure. During the year, when application was made for permission to disinfect rooms in which deaths from consumption had occurred, the permission was granted in respect of over 60 per cent, of the applications. SUMMER DIARRHŒA. The Stoke Newington mortality returns show a marked decrease in the number of deaths from Diarrhœa, notwithstanding the ex ceptional heat of July and August. Prior to the second week in July the weekly number of deaths from Summer Diarrhoea had been for a long time below the mean of the corresponding period of the preceding ten years, but sub sequently, for several weeks, those deaths considerably exceeded the mean. This exceptional rise in the mortality from Diarrhoea was determined by the fact that the mean daily tempera tures had been exceptionally high, for there are sufficient reasons for believing that the essential cause of the complaint resides in the soil, from which it issues under favourable meteorlogical conditions (more especially of temperature) to gain access to air, water and food. It is especially important, therefore, in the summer months to take every possible means of ensuring the freedom of these necessities of life from c ntamination. The chief means of reducing the mortality from Summer Diarrhoea is by giving nothing but well-boiled liquid