[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District].

  • St. Giles (London, England). Board of Works.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    10 bronchitis (49), but whilst the average age of those (lying from phthisis in the Workhouse (38) is very nearly the same as of those dying from phthisis in in the District at large,—the average age of those dying from bronchitis in the Workhouse (57) is half a high again as of those dying from the same disease in the District. These anomalies are explained by the circumstance that the inmates of the Workhouse are chiefly adults and aged people. Phthisis, being a disease, in the main, of adult life, brings down its victims at about the same age whether in the Workhouse or out of it; and most of those who died in the Workhouse no doubt came in with the malady already formed; whilst the deaths from bronchitis in the District fell largely among children under two years of age of whom there are few in the Workhouse. There is a singular discrepancy as to sexes also. The deaths from phthisis in the Workhouse were males 41, females 20, or more than double the number of males; whilst in the District at large they were at the rate of males 118, females 100. It would seem, therefore, that when a wife or daughter fell ill, the husband being strong and in work, preferred, if possible, to keep the sick one at home; but when the husband or son fell ill, and was unable to labour, there was no resource left but the Workhouse. In bron chitis the conditions are, in a certain degree, changed; but this is explained by the fact that bronchitis attacks older people, and is most severe beyond the working age. More women live to the age when (among adults) bron chitis is fatal than men—a fact that is brought out also in the general mortality of the District, as will be seen by consulting the Table in the Appendix, where the deaths from bronchitis are represented to bo for males 88, females 119. There were 20 deaths in the Workhouse last year from disease of the heart at the mature average of 52, which is lower than the average age for the entire District. It is noticeable that so many as 19 persons died in the AVorkhouse during the year at the high average age of 81, of whom the majority —eleven—were females, (males 8, females 11) a ratio that is consistent with the ratio for the district (male 16, females 25), and confirmatory of general opinion of the longevity of the so called weaker sex. The Bloomsbury Dispensary.—Bloomsbury Dispensary has ministered to the relief of the suffering poor as largely as usual. The advantage which this Institution must be to the District can be duly estimated only by a scru tiny of the figures in the following Table, with which I have been favoured by the medical staff. TABLE IX.—New Cases treated at the Bloomsbury Dispensary, 1868. Quarter ending– Physician's Cases. Surgeon's cases. Casualties. Total. Admitd. Visited at home. Died. Admitd. Visited at home. Died. Admitd. Visited at homo. Died. Mar. 25th. 703 178 30 318 50 2 270 1201 228 32 June 24th 689 159 19 247 13 1 267 1203 172 20 Sept. 29th. 715 173 17 319 27 2 325 1359 200 19 Dec. 25th. 536 221 16 292 54 3 225 1053 278 19 Whole Yr. 2643 734 82 1176 144 8 1087 4906 878 90 So many as 490G cases were treated by the Physicians and Surgeons of this Institution during the year. Of this number 878 were visited at their homes. The smallest number of cases of sickness occurred iu the second quarter, and the largest number in the fourth quarter of the year. The mor tality however did not observe this rule, it being the heaviest in the first