Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly.

  • Jamaica. Central Board of Health
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    549/594 (page 239)
    Ariswcrs of the reverend Samuel H. Stctrarf, L. L. P. to the questions appended lo circular '6th Sepleniber^ 1851. No. 1. By a survey made within eight yenrs, it ap- pears the parish of Clarendon contains three hundred and fourteen square miles. It is scattered ; there are not two towns of any size worth calling so ; the vil- lage of Chapelton the largest. Four Patlis and Bread ]Nut Bottom contain a few houses each ; at the for- mer there are four large stores for the sale of general provisions and supplies. Thepari>his entirely moun- tainous, except a stripe of flat land running east and ^vest, from the line of St. Dorothy to that of Manches- ter, and north and south from the line of the parish of V^ere, south to the main post road, along the base of the first tier of hills. All tlie roads are exceedingly bad ; the main roads, including the post road, are nearly impassable in wet weather ; in the mountain districts there are literally no roads. People cannot reach church or market but at the risk of their lives ; nor can I fulfil what 1 deem one of the most import- ant and imperative duties of a clergyman visiting among his parishioners but at the same risk. JNo language I could use could approach to an adequate description of the wretchedness of our roads. No. 2. The estimated population, at the census, was something above seventeen thousand; but 1 have no reliance on its correctness. 1 should, from tole- rably sutficientdata, estimate it, in 1844, attwenty-tvvo thousand ; and it has certainly increased since. The reduction by the pestilence is not yet accurately as- certained ; the special registrars not having made re- turns. 1 think one thousand five hundred died of cholera; they were, I may almost say, without ex- ception, able, and previously, healthy people. I am parish treasuser, and pay the paupers; only one died, and he perhaps was one who was barely entitled to be on the list. The survivors are nearly balanced in