Cancer mortality in the Chelmsford and Maldon districts (East Essex) / by G. Melmoth Scott ; with introduction by John C. Thresh.

  • Scott, George Melmoth.
Date:
[1900]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cancer mortality in the Chelmsford and Maldon districts (East Essex) / by G. Melmoth Scott ; with introduction by John C. Thresh. 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.

    16/22 (page 14)
    When beginning this part of the inquiry I calculated the death-rates for “ persons,” males and females, in each parish for each of the three decades, but the results were obviously unreliable, in consequence of the small number of inhabitants in some of the parishes. To take two extreme instances, Hazeleigh (population 117) shows a death-rate for the 30 years of i6'3i per 1,000 per decade, while Asheldham (population 176) is in the happy position of never having had a death from cancer within its boundaries since the year 1871. Only one cancer death per decade would have made the rate in the latter parish equal to that in the former. I have, therefore, in many cases arranged small contiguous parishes into groups in such a way that in none of them shall the average population be less than one thousand, this number being the lowest on which it is at all probable that reliable data can be founded. The outlines of these groups, thirty-one in number, need not be described in detail. The highest mortality (S’g to8'02 per 1,000 per decade) occurs in the Waltham and Purleigh groups. Of these. Great Waltham is situated in the extreme north- west part of our area. The soil consists entirely of clay, which rises in one part to a height of 230 feet above mean sea-level, and is nowhere less than 130 feet. It may be considered a fairly elevated parish. Through it runs the Chelmer, which is here little more than a brook, but such as it is the houses are mostly aggregated in its vicinity. The floods in this and other parts are seldom serious, as the rainfall rarely exceeds 25 inches per annum. The Purleigh group also lies fairly high, a large part of the surface being above the 100 feet contour, while it rises in one part to 170 feet. The village of Purleigh comprises by far the largest collection of houses within the group, and is situated on a sharp slope. The low-lying part of the parish is liable to be flooded when Purleigh Wash is swollen by very heavy rains, but there are few houses in the vicinity. Where, then, the mortality is highest in our area, it cannot be attributed to floods, nor yet to the clayey soil, which is common to the lowest as well as to the highest mortality districts. The groups with the lowest mortality (3'43 to 474 per 1,000 per decade) are the following ; A verbal description of these groups will enable us to gain a clearer conception of their physical features than can be gathered from maps alone. Tollesbury (with the lowest death-rate of all) is extremely flat, the village being situated at an elevation of 85 feet only. The outline of the parish is roughly triangular, two sides of the triangle being formed by muddy foreshore, creeks, and saltings; more than half the parish is under water at high tide ; there are no fresh-water streams. In contrast with the above is the Wickham Bishops group. Here the largest collection of houses is the village of Wickham itself, situated on a patch of gravel at an elevation of 230 feet, the village church forming a conspicuous landmark. Although the (fresh water) river Blackwater, which is liable to floods, bounds the group on one side, yet there are very few houses in the vicinity of the water. The Woodham Walter group is bounded on the north by the river Chelmer, Tollesbury. Wickham Bishops. Woodham Walter. Springfield. Ingatestone. Runwell. Woodham Ferris. Stow Maries. Burnham.