The Sun. — 1855-07-12 (London, England)

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.  (From the Report of the Registrar-General. )  The deaths registered in London, which in May rose to nearly 1,200 in a week, and in June to nearly 1,100, tell to 926 in the week that ended last Saturday. The average number in the ten corresponding weeks of 184554, when corrected for increase of population, is 1,058. The present return is therefore of a favourable character. Diarrhoea was, however, fatal in 28 cases, cholera in 6 ; and one of the cases of cholera was of a severe type, as in 11 hours it killed a labourer in the Battersea workhouse on Friday, 6th July; one warning day of diarrhcea preceded the cholera. The temperature of the Thames was 66.2 deg. during the week, and its waters were exceedingly impure ; the water supply is not yet good, and the sewers are left untrapped and ill-ventilated, while the streets are imperfectly cleansed ; so that if London is left much longer without some sensible sanitary control, the public health must inevitably soon decline, and the population be afflicted by a great epidemic. The health of London during the three months of April, May, and June has been better than it was in the corresponding seasons of the two previous years ; but the mortality is still higher than it was some years ago, and the deaths in thirteen weeks were 14,997, or more by some thousands probably than would have happened had the sanitary arrangements of London been in a satisfactory state. 323 persons, nearly all children unvaccinated, died of small-pox, 182 of measles, 589 of scarlatina, 626 of hooping-cough, 505 of typhus. Small-pox prevailed most in the East and South districts, measles in the East, scarlatina generally, booping-cough in the West and North, fever and diarrhoea in the South districts. Erysipelas is still unusually prevalent ; and 47 mothers died of metric, or fever after childbirth, and 78 of other diseases incidental to that state ; Of diarrhcea, 222 persons died ; of cholera 8. The deaths from cholera were only 11 in the corresponding season of the year 1854, which, nevertheless, subsequently witnessed a great outbreak of the epidemic. The deaths from consumption (2,126) and from bronchitis (1,175) exceed the average ; a result which is, perhaps, referable in some measure to the preceding severe winter ; 22 deaths are ascribed directly to intemperance, 38 to delirium tremens, 23 to poison, 86 to burns and scalds, 26 to hanging (chiefly suicides), 30 to suffocation, 89 to drowning, 188 to fractures and contusions, 19 to wounds. 3,870 men of the ages of 20 and upwards died in London in the 13 weeks—namely, 2 peers of the realm and 82 persons in the civil service, and 25 in the police and in offices of local government ; 209 officers, soldiers, and pensioners, 103 members of the learned professions, including 9 clergymen, 4 barristers, 23 solicitors, 3 physicians, 12 surgeons, 43 men of letters, men of science, or artists ; 478 men engaged in entertaining, clothing, performing personal offices, including 12 eating and coffee house keepers, 83 domestic servants, 60 inn servants, 15 hairdressers, 108 tailors out of 20,257, and 139 shoes makers out of 26,639. Of the mercantile class 189 men died, including 10 merchants, 1 banker, 5 stockbrokers, 67 commercial clerks ; of the carrying class 434 died ; of men engaged in agriculture and in gardens 85 died. The deaths of men engaged about horses and animals, as grooms, jockeys, horsekeepers, and others, were 50 ; of men engaged in art and mechanical productions, 670 ; butchers and men engaged in working and dealing in animal matters, 201 ; greengrocers, bakers, licensed victuallers, and persons working and dialing in vegetable matters, 469 ; men working and dealing in coal, iron, and other minerals, 308 ; labourers and others (branch of labour undefined), 237 ; men of rank or property not returned under any office or occupation, 142 ; and 81 men had no specified occupation,