Mr Netten Radcliffe's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary condition of Gravesend, Kent.

  • Radcliffe, J. Netten.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr Netten Radcliffe's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary condition of Gravesend, Kent. 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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    (cA~ of the town is built upon a bed of sand, gravel, loam, laminated clay, and other clays (an outlier of the lower tertiary formation of the London basin, belonging to the Thanet and Woolwich series, which here caps the chalk) ; and a small section on the bank of the river and in the low-lying ground rests on alluvium. With the exception it may be (the question being as yet undetermined) of a few houses situated on the edge of the trough which apparently holds on the higher ground the cap of sand, gravel, and clays just described, and the houses in the lowest part of the town, of which the foundations must rest near to the water-line of the chalk, the site of Gravesend, from the porosity of the soil on which it stands and from the facility with which the rainfall flows off, is very dry.* Gravesend, in fact, apart from its proximity to the marshes on the east, occupies a site which offers peculiar facilities for securing the wholesomeness of the town. Moreover, in all except the oldest portions—namely, on the river side and about the High Street— the arrangement of the streets and houses in respect to openness is such as, other things being equal, to give effect to the favourableness of its position and site. But notwithstanding this advantageousness of situation, Gravesend, as gauged by its mortality, has not been a healthy town.f During the decade 1851-60 the general mortality of Gravesend marched near upon that of the metropolis (226 per 10,000 population as compared with 236), and its mortality from “fever” (8’8 as compared with 8’5) was equal to and from diarrkceal disease (2L3 as compared with 152) was actually in excess of that of the metropolis. Gravesend, indeed, during this period, had a higher mortality from “ fever ” than such districts of the metropolis as Clerkenwell (5*9), St. Luke (7*3), Poplar (6‘9), Bermondsey (7‘8), Lambeth (7'1), &c., and from diarrhoeal disease than all the districts of the metro- polis, four only excepted (St. Saviour’s; St. Olave’s; St. George’s, Southwark; and Rotherhithe). During the next decade, 1861-70, there was in Gravesend a diminution of the general mortality, and of the mortality from the two classes of disease which have been specified. * My colleague, Dr. Buchanan, in liis investigation concerning the distribution of phthisis as affected by dampness of soil, made in 1867, estimated that out of the then population of Gravesend (which came within the area of country submitted to examination) 50 lived on alluvium, 4,000 on the lower tertiaries (the sand, gravel, and clays, referred to in the text), 13,989 on chalk, and 743 on board vessels. The relative proportions of the population living on the different soils will have changed very little, if at all, I infer, since this estimate was made. | Table showing the Mean Annual Death Bate, per 10,000 living at all Ages, in Gravesend, from certain specified Diseases, in the Decades 1851-60, 1861-70, the Five Years 1871-75, and in 1876. Mean Annual Death Rate per 10,000 living at all Ages. Population at all Ages. District and Period. All Causes. Pever Diarrhoea, Dysentery, and Cholera. (“Typhus” of the Registrar- General) . Inclusive of Epidemic Cholera. Exclusive of Epidemic Cholera, 1854, 1866. Scarlet Fever. r 17,707 1851-60. Gravesend 226-5 8-8 21-3 16-3 8-2 Mean population - < 2,583,112 London - 236 3 8-5 15-2 11-0 9-4 91,830 Standard Group of 166-0 6-0 5-7 5-7? 4-6 f 20,023 Rural Districts. 1861-70. Gravesend 219-1 7-8 13-6 12-4 10-2 Mean population - < 3,029,125 London - 243-1 8-9 12-9 11-0 11-4 [ 110,922 Standard Group of 165-0 4-8 5-7 5-7 ? 5-5 Estimated mean J 21,797 Rural Districts. 1871-75. Gravesend 194-9 4-1 7-7 7-7 3-6 population. 3,353,498 London - 230-4 4-4 11-1 11-1 5-8 Estimated popula- 1 22,618 1876. Gravesend 177-2 3-0 13-2 13-2 12-8 tion 1 3,489,428 London - 221-8 3-3 10-6 10-6 6-6