Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the town of Eton / by Edward Cresy, Superintending Inspector.

Edward Cresy

Date:: 1849

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the town of Eton / by Edward Cresy, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$The loss of life to every individual was four months. To every adult three months. 0. The proportion of deaths to the entire population, the re^stration district, 38,454, was one in every 49, or at tllj rate of 20 • 5 for every thousand. 10. The total money loss on the year s deaths of the distrii is stated to be 1,245Z. 11. Most of the deaths from endemic disease are stated have occurred in the worse-drained districts, where the labouil ing classes principally reside; but from the difficulty obtaining accurate data, it is not possible to give a stattj ment of the loss that is annually sustained from sickneas art] death. The deaths from epidemic diseases were 320 out of a popiiJ lation of 38,454, one in every 120 of the entire number. The average number of deaths per annum from Septem 1841, to September, 1848, was 5If- of the whole populat the total number of deaths during that period being 360. During the six months, from September 30, 1848, March 3, 1849, according to a return furnished by Ml W. G. S. Clark, surgeon to the Eton division, there were .\ cases of continued fever, 8 cases of diarrhoea, 4 cases ophthalmia, 1 of hooping cough, and 1 of influenza. The fever cases were 11 between the ages of 3 and 16, aiij 2 adults; those of diarrhoea, 4 between the ages of 4^ and and 4 adults. The four cases of ophthalmia were between the ages of 4^ aiil 11 years. The chief localities of disease were Strugnell's-buildind Pleasant-row, Brocas-lane, Hawke's-lane, Mill Fields, ll| Belle Vue, Eton Wick, King's-stables, and the courts adjaceir All these streets and alleys are in a bad condition; th'ii are not drained, nor have the inhabitants any other meail than those which the cesspools afford to free their habitatiaj from the refuse and excreraentitious matters. 12. The Roads are kept in tolerably good repair, althouf^ there does not appear to be any regular or proper systeo adopted to maintain them as they ought to be ; they are neithlJ scraped, watered, nor cleansed at stated times or as often as- required. There are out of the town of Eton, by the road-sicil open ditches, and a considerable quantity of matter witHJ them that requires frequent casting out. 13. The roads are mostly so level, that by a little attentii the draught may always be maintained with a comparative^ small excess of ordinary labour. 14. The returns of the quantity of exciscable articles d;i posed of here, would not show ihc consumption by the inhh$