The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-07 00:00:00

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE

WEEK.

(Prom the Report of the Registrar-General.)
In the week that ended on Saturday, Oct. 3, the
number of deaths registered in London was 1,087.
In the 10 yews 1847-56 the average number of
deaths in the weeks corresponding with last week
was 1,136, which, if raised in proportion to increase
of population, becomes 1,250. The deaths from
diarrhoea last week were 79, being nearly the same
as in the previous week, when they were 83. There
were n• deaths from cholera among adults ; but
two cases of infants who died of choleraic diarrhoea
are referred to this head. A potman, aged 34
years, died in the HackneyWorkhothse on Sept. 28,
of " natural decay, accelerated by want." On the
3d of July the wife of a serjeant committed suicide
with cyanide of potassium; on the 15th of July a
woman committed suicide with the same substance;
and on the 29th of August the son of a serjeant,
aged six years, was poisoned by it, the bottle which
held it having been left within his reach. Cyanide
of potassium is used by soldiers for cleaning their
lace. Of six nonagenarians whose deaths are re-
turned, the oldest are two men, aged respectively
94 and 95 years, and a woman who died in the
workhouse, Newington, at the age (as stated) of
105 years.

Last ,week the births of 916 boys and 849 girls,
in all 1,765 children, were registered in London.
In the ten corresponding weeks of the years 1847-
56 the average number was 1,141.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.868 in.
The mean temperature was 58.4 deg., which is 4.6
deg. above the average. The mean daily tempera-
ture was morn or less above the average throughout
the week. The wind was generally in the south-
west. No rain fell except on Monday, when the
amount was 0.17 in.

Fourteen thousand two hundred and fifty-nine
persons died in the quarter that ended Sept. 26.
The number exceeds by nearly 200 that of the

lame period in 1836. But if diarrhoea had not pre-
vailed more in the past summer than it did in
1856, other conditions being unaffected, the pre-
sent returns would have indicated a superior de-
gree of health. In the last three summers the
total deaths were (taking them in the order of
time) 13,042, 14,066, 14,259; and the deaths from
diarrhoea were 1258, 1610, 2343. The influence of
a particular disease in raising the total mortality,
which would otherwise be stationary or depresseJ,
is palpable in these numbers ; and a like inct ease is
traced in the deaths attributed to complaints of a
kindred character, and to some sporadic diseases
affecting the alimentary system. Dysentery was
fatal in the threesumtners to 46, 73, and 84 persons ;
cholera to 106, 131, and 177 parsons. To tabes
mesenterica 262, 284, 333 deaths aro referred ; to
disease of the liver 122, 143, 187 ; and under teeth
ing, though the number decreased in 1856 from 141
to 122, it rose this summer to 163. The unusual
heat experienced in the first months of the quarter,
co-operating with agencies that are more under
control, has perhaps been mainly efficacfoue in pro
ducing these results ; but with the knowledge th tt
cholera has been lately infesting parts little re-
moved from our coast, it may be conjectured that
the epidemic virus extended itself in a milder form
beyond the immediate field of action, its advance is
force being only a question of time and opportunity.
The speculation may bo futile, but the fac.s must be
admitted, and supply a more than sufficient motive
for preparation.

The heat of the last quarter is its Wriliing meteor-
ological feature, and will be described by stating
that the mean temperature was 63.6 deg., which is
3.5 deg. above the average, and that there was an
excess of the mean temperature above its average in
12 weeks out of the 13, and on 71 days out of the
91. The result is a reduction in the mortAlity of
pulmonary diseases, particularly br,nichitis and
pneumonia ; and it will be seen also that cephalitis,
apoplexy, and paralysis were less fatal than usual.

MORTALITY IN THE METROPOLIS
NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES REGISTERED

IN THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, OCT. 3.
Zymotic Diseases
Diseases of Uncertain Seat
Tubercular Diseases . . lB5
Diseases of the Brain, Nerves and Senses
Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 5O
Diseases of the Lungs and other Organs of
Respiration 125
Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs

of Digestion
Diseases of the Kidneys, &c.
Childbirth, Diseases of the Uterus, &c.
Diseases of the Joints, Bones, and Muscles .. 3
Diseases of the Skin; &c.
Malformations 1
Premature Birth and Debility 3O
Atrophy
Old Age
sudden . 14
Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 129
Causes not specified

DEATHS PROM ALL CAUSES
Population Deaths in corre- Deaths
Enumerate& sponding week in the
1851. of 1556. Week.
West Districts
North Districts 490,396
Central Districts 393,256
East Districts 485,522
South Districts

Totals
Males
Females
BIRTHS IN THE WEEK.
Males
Females

1,071 1,087
588
459
916
849

Total - 1,765

SANITARY STATE OF TFIE CITY.

Yesterday, at the City Court of Sewers, Dr.
Letheby, the medioal officer of health, presented
his weekly report, from which the following is an
extract :

TIM NUISANCE ON THE WASTE GROUND OT NEW
VICTORIA-STREET.
"A letter has been received from the board of works
of the Holborn district, containing an extract from a
recent report of their medical officer of he sltb. It is
to the effect that last spring be directed the attention
of the board to a very great nuisance caused by large,
accumulatisns of putrifying animal and vegetable re-
fuse upon the waste ground between Saffron-6;11 and
Cow-cross. The City authorities, to whom the pro-
perty belongs, at once took active measures to abate
the nuisance, and much good was thereby accom-
plished. He now complains of a large and offensive
pool of stagnant water on a piece of ground between
St. Peter's Church and the lower part of Vine-street.
" This complaint has been submitted to me for inves-

tigation, and in reporting of it I think it hardly neces-
sary that I should occupy your time with anything more
than a very general description of the barren waste upon
which the offensive thing stands.
"Years ago, a large tract of land, extending from
Holborn to Clerkenwell, crowded with the worst dens of
the metropolia, and haunted by poverty and crime, was
cleared of its wretched habitations to make way for the
new street that now traverses it from end to end. That
a great public improvement was effected by this clear-
ance there can be no doubt, but it remains,for the future
to have it fully realised, for at present as the rubbish of
old buildings was first heaped together, so it now
stands, and where the pits were dug to reach the deep
foundation, there they still remain ; in point of fact,
except for the rich contributions that have been fre-
quently made to the refuse of the place by the coster-
rsongers, the oyster-dealers, and the countlees poor of the
neighbourhood, the ground is in pretty much the same
condition as when the last house in the 01l colony was
levelled. The coudition of the surface is very favourable
for the collection of stagnant water and the formation
of offensive pools, such as now the subject of complaint.
There can be no doubt of their unwholesome influence
and of the necessity for removing them.
"Another source of annoyance to the neighbourhood
is the disgusting way in which the dry arches of the
new street are used. Hundreds of these arches line the
two sides of the road, and form the boundary of the
barren waste to which I have been alluding. By day
they are the resort of persons whose conduct is offen-
sive to public decency, and by night they are tenanted
by wretched outcasts who can promo no better shelter.
I wish indeed they had no worse occupants ; for upon
the City side of this locality we have long since found
it necessary to fill the arches up. I therefore recom-
mend not only that the surface of the vacant ground
should be made level and the ditches filled in, but also
that the police who are on duty there, and the keeper
of the ground who is employed by the corporation should
be instructed to prevent any improper u-ie of the open
arches.
" And now that I am reporting of waste ground, I am
desirous of directing your attention to see eral places
within the City, where the inhabitants are accustomed

to deposit their trade tefuse, and thus to be a constant
Source of annoyance to the neighbourhood and expense
to the commission. One of these is in Angel-alley,
Bisbopsgate-street. It is a large space of unclaimed
Iground, that has been converted into a common laystall.
At the present time it contains some hundred tons of
rubbish, besides many cartloads of oyster shells that have
been recently deposited there. Another such a place is
in Willis's-court, Brackley-street ; a third in Half-moon-
alley, Little Moorfields ; a fourth in Featherbed-hill,
Moor-lane ; and a fifth in Sussex-place, Leadenhalt.
street. If these places could be cleared and then paved
over, or even if they could be boarded in, the nuisances
would be abated and the commission would annually
save a sum of money which they now pay to the sca-
vengers for carting the refuse away.
"As to the water supply of Thompson-court that was
referred to me for examination at the last meeting of the
commission, I have to report that in the month of Nov.,
1853, orders were given to the landlord to provide cis-
terns for the supply of the six houses in the court. He
then erected three tanks over the closets of the alter-
nate houses. These tanks will hold about 450 gallons
of water. But this quantity is not sufficient for the I]9
inhabitants of the court, besides which the cisterns are
so placed as to receive the offensive effluvium from the
closets, and the water is thereby rendered unfit for do-
mestic use. My recommendation, therefore, is that as
the cisterns are only sufficiently large to supply the
closets of the six houses, an order be given for the con-
struction of another cistern, capable of holding 500 gal-
lons, and that it be erected, with all needful appliances,
in the court."

Orders were issued accordingly by the commission.

EPIDEMIC CHOLERA.

The following precautionary advice to local
boards of health, with reference to epidemic cholera,
has been issued by the General Board of Health,
Whitehall :
" General Board of Health, Whitehall, Sept. 29.
"Cholera has again become epidemic in several of the
Baltic ports, and at Hamburg. On each of the three
former occasions, when the disease has visited England,
its first appearance in our eastern seaports followed
closely on its epidemic outbreak in the last-named city.
" During the past three months there has been ob-
ser►ed in London, and in some other parts of England,
a very unusual fatality irons diarrhoea ; and this de-
rangement of the public health is such as, on the previous
occasions referred to, preceded the commencement of the
epidemic periods of cholera.

" The General Board of Health deems it expedient to
call the attention of local boards of health to these
facts, and most earnestly recommends that the powers
vested in such boards for the protection of the public
health be exeroised from the present time with especial
vigilance.

"As regards the exercise of those powers with parti-
cular reference to the prevention of cholera, the most
important security for the public health is to be found
in the fulfilment of two conditions :—First, that the air
within and about dwelling-places be not contaminated
, with offensive organic effluvia, such as arise when the
• bou yes themselves are ill ventilated, overcrowded, and un-
clean, or when their refuse is not properly removed from
them by drainage or otherwise, or when any filty accumu-
lations exist in their neighbourhood, or when the local
sewerage is defective. Secondly, that the public supply
of water be, as !ar as possible, unpolluted by any kind of
animal or vegetable impurity ; for where cholera is pre-
sent or impending no house can be considered safe for
habitation in which there is any offensive smell of
animal refuse, or of other putrefactive animal or vege-
table matter ; and no water can be considered safe for
drinking into which there flows (as is often the case
with rivers and with wells in the neighbourhood of
house.) any habitual discharge of town refuse or any ac-
cidental soakage or leakage from drains or cesspools.
"An abstract is subjoined (see below) of those more
important p►ovisions of the Public Health Act, the
Nuisance Removal Act, and the Common Lodging-
houses Acts, under which local boards of health are able
to provide for the sanitary improvement of their respec-
tive districts in the various matters referred to.
"In proceeding to the exercise of these powers at the
present juncture, it is desirable that early and special
attention should be given to those parts of each district
which have hithertl been unhealthiest, particularly to
those where cholera has prevailed on previous occasions,
or where diarrhoea has been most frequent ; also, that
the local board should' be kept well informed as to the
amount of bowel complaint prevailing from time to time
within their district, and that intelligence should be
given to the General Board in care of any notable in-
crease in the prevalence of such disorder.
"It is to be expected that the officer of health (where
one has been appointed) will inquire with more than
ordinary minuteness into the state of premises, and
into the velity of the different sources of water-supply,
within his district ; and that sanitary inspectors of nui-
sances will use the utmost vigilance in every department
of their duty--especially in reference to public scaveng-
ing, to the state of sewers, to the removal of house-re-
fuse, to the keeping of slaughter-houses and cattle sheds,
and to the fulfilment of such orders for sanitary work
as the local board may find it requisite to issue.
" Two case:—'urniehed by the experience of the last
epidermic—peculiarly deserve the consideration of local
boards, as illustrating what may reasonably be expected
from► sanitary improvement in averting the ravages of
cholera.

" 1. In September, 1853, the most devastating out-
Lreak of cholera experienced yet in England occurred at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is near to Tynernouth,
and connected with it by a railway. In Newcastle and
Gateshead, within a few weeks, nearly 2,000 people
died of Ibe disease ; and the cost (direct and indirect)
of this visitation was estimated at aboirt 40,0001. over
and above the large losses sustained from the
temporary stoppage of trade. In the neighbouring
borough of Tynesnoutb, during the same epidemic period,
only 12 deaths from cholera occurred, of which four were
indigenous cases; and yet diarrhoea was generally pre-
valent at Tynemoutb, while cholera prevailed at New-
castle and the adjoining town of Gateshead. • Many
thousand persons from the latter towns fled to Tyne-
month, and many continued to pass daily between the
two towns during the whole time of the visitation. This
comparative immunity of Tynemouth is the more te-
markable
from its contrast with the heavy mortality
experienced during the out-break of 1848.9, for on that
occasion the deaths in the parish from cholera and
diarrhoea amounted to 463, and the continge%t expenses
for the maintenance of widows and orphans due to that
four months' visitation appear to have amounted within
the next four years to 7,5001.
"The great difference between these results seems to
have been entirely due to sanitary improvements effected
in Tynennouth during the interval between the two visi-
tations. Dr. Greenhow (who at that time was chair-
man of the local board, and took an active part in pro-
moting its sanitary measures) has written the following
account* of the course which was adopted The
Public Health Act was applied to the borough of Tyne-
mouth, on the petition of the town-council, in the sum-
mer of 1851. The provisions of the Act relative to the
registration and regulation of common of common lodg-
inghouses and slaughterhouses and the construction of
new streets and houses were immediately put in force.
Care was taken to prevent the erection of houses
without proper conveniences, and provision made for
ventilation. No ashpits were allowed to be made
against the main walls of dwellini-houses or without
proper doors and covers. Wherever sewers existed
drains from the houses were insisted on, and all
persons laying out new streets were compelled to have
back entrances to the houses, and to provide for the con-
struction of drains from the hacks of the houses, instead
of carrying them underneath the basement story, as was
previously usual. In the autumn of 1852, when the re-
appearance of cholera in this country was considered
probable, an active inspection of the town was instituted
by the Public Health Act Committee ; the bycourts and
lanes were thoroughly cleansed; the gully grates trapped ;
the foul open ditch behind the North-street was cleansed
and filled in ; and many other local nuisances
throughout the borough were removed, On the report
of the first death from Cholera in Newcastle, in 1853,
the like measures were again resorted to. The courts,
lanes, and common lodging-houses were inspected
by the health committee, aided by other members of
the town-council. Every common lodging-house iu the
town wa■ peremptorily ordered to be lime-washed and
cleansed within 48 hours, an order which was obeyed.
A large staff of carte and men were at once employed to
cleanse all the courts, 'lanes, and back passages in the
town, which, after the rough dirt was removed, were
sluiced with water thrown into them by a powerful fire-
engine afloat on the river. All the courts and smaller
streets, after being thus perfectly cleansed, were lime-
washed. Depots of qeicklime for the we of the poor
were placed in convenient places throughout the borough,
and to induce them to wake free use of it the local autho-
rities personally visited the inhabitants of the localities
in which cholera had formerly prevailed. Ruinous channels
were repaired, and where the gullies were imperfectly
trapped this was rectified, and chloride of lime, of whic►z
a ton was speedily consumed, was profusely used for the
purpose of disinfecting them. In the course of 14 days
the town was brought into as good a sanitary state as
possible under existing circumstances, 1,500 eartloads of
manure having been removed in that short period from
the vicinity of human habitations. The entire expense
incurred by these operations amounted to 2301., which
was afterwards reduced to less than 2001. by the sale of
the manure."

"Secondly the southern districts of London (compris-
ing nearly a fifth of the entire population of the metro-
pt lis) have presented a complete proof of the importance
of a pure water supply in relation to the ravages of cho-
lera. _
For throughout those districts, during the epide-
rale of 1853-4, there were distributed two different
d
qua-
lities of water, so that one large population
lwaas tion drinking
an ex-
ceedingly tolerably good water, another large
t
p
foul water; while in othheareraemsoppeaucdtissttrhinetsse, twoand
populations (being intermixed in
these district)
e nwta
rictir)nwerielniveiensg.
ellynednerinprtehCeissealymBeiMstirlaerests ofocia andt sanitaryl
And when, at the end of the epidemic prim, the death
rates of these populations were c,anpared it was found
that the cholera mortality in the houses supplied by the
bad water had been 3i times as great as in the houses
supplied by the better water. This proof of the fatal
influence of foul water was rendered still stronger by
reference to what had occurred in the epidemic of 1843-9
—for on that occasion one of these companies (which
noon afterwards improved its suppl)) was giving even s
werse water than its rival; and the population supplied
by it had at that time suffered a proportionate choler
mortality. So that the consequence of the improvement
made by this water company in the interval between the
two epidem. ca was, that whereas in the epidemic ce
1848-9 there had died 1,925 of their tenants, there died
in the epidemic of 1853.4 only 611 ; while ameng the

* Cholera in Tynemouth in 1831-32, 1848- ;9 and 1853.
By E. H. Ureenhow, M.D., &c., read before the Epidemio-
logical Society of London, Feb. 5, 1855.