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 borough of Bedford / by William Lee, Superintending Inspector.

William Lee

Date:: 1855

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 borough of Bedford / by William Lee, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$mental to health, but even plated and brass articles and Bedfokd, silver watches are discoloiu-ed when hung up inside the houses. I am aware that in this condensation I have been unable to do justice to the important depositions of the medical witnesses, and therefore refer to the appendix which contains them at length. I feel bound, however, to say that the state of the town in respect of drainage, water, and nuisances, sufficiently accounts for the large amount of disease and mortality to which the}' have testified. Vital Statistics. This part of my duty has been invested with more than ordinaiy interest by the labours of Dr. Barker, and by the efforts, sincere I have no doubt, to call in question the conclusions to which he has come. The following is a Return from the Registrar General, made in accordance with the terras of the Public Health Act. A Retukn of the Total Number of Deaths in each of the Seven Years ending 1852, with the Proportion of Deaths to 1,000 living during that Period ; also the Number of Deaths in each of the same Years from the Zymotic Class of Diseases, in the Borough of Bedford. Population in 1841 - - - 9,178 Population in 1851 - - - 11,693 Years. 1846. 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1852. Total. Annual Average per 1,000. Deaths from all \ Causes - - J 381 366 310 354 273 254 267 2,205 28 Deaths fromZy-1 motic Diseases J 116 119 73 102 60 49 38 557 (Signed) George Graham, General Register Of/ice, Registrar General. 29th Nov. 185:3. It was urged upon me by a report of a committee of tlie town council, and by several witnesses, that the rates of mortality apparent from the registers were fallacious; [3t] B$