[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington].

  • Kensington (London, England). Parish. Vestry.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    5 Our rateable value of property is nearly £226,000, and the average annual value of each house is about £45. The entire parish is said to be about eight miles in circumference, to contain sixty miles of road, and one hundred and thirty miles of paths. Our Geological condition is much the same as that of the surround ing parishes; the soil, for the most part, is a dark rich loam, beneath which are strata of fine gravel, of different degrees of firmness, mixed with large quantities of sand; in the Notting-hill district, we have a large bed of stiff clay replacing this sand; below it, is the continuation of that immense bed of clay which runs under the whole metropolis, called—the blue London clay. The fact of so large a quantity of sand forming the sub-soil of a great portion of the district is of much importance in a sanitary point of view, as it tends to prevent the accumulation of water on the surface; but it may at the same time lead to the contamination of our superficial wells, by introducing organic matter, unless means be taken to prevent it; for in all populous neighbourhoods, particu larly where refuse matter in a decomposing state is allowed to ac cumulate, the surface waters, holding in solution organic matter, rapidly find their way into wells, and render their contents unfit for drinking puposes, if not poisonous. ELEVATION. The Elevation of a district above high water mark appears to exercise much influence on the mortality from certain diseases, more especially from cholera and diarrhsea:—thus, the mortality from cholera in those districts situated below high water mark was at the rate of upwards of 100 per myriad; those from 20 to 30 feet above high water, from 16 to 50 per myriad; whilst at the height of 80 feet and upwards the mortality was as low as 2 in the same number. It cannot be laid down as a rule that the mortality from this disease is in an inverse ratio to the height above high water mark; but we may fairly expect that where the elevation is slight, cholera and zymotic diseases will be found much more rife, and the death Tate higher. The following observations result from an examination of the