Municipal hygiene and demography.
- International Congress of Hygiene and Demography
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Municipal hygiene and demography. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![CO ]\[HmcipaI IJipfieuc u)h1 Dcnuxjvdphy. of tlie Corporation undertaking the management of the horse tramway system, or granting a new lea-se under new conditions to the Edinhiirgh Street Tramways Company, who have worked tlie system for the last 20 years, are under consideration. During the year 1891 an Electric Lighting Provisional Order was obtained, empowering the Magistrates and Council, under certain pre- scribed conditions to supply electrical energy for public and private purposes. Edinburgh enjoyed for many years the nnenviable notoriety of being subject to periodical outbursts of fever. These assumed in all eases the epidemic form and entailed a large, mortality among the citizens. It was observed that the first to suffer were the Irish, then the poorer Scotch, but ultimately all classes of the community were affected, including among the medical profession the physicians and resident ofhcials of the Eoyal Infirmary, and, lastly, the medical students, who caught the infectiou in their dispensary practice. Tliei’e can be little doubt that one main cause of these repeated outbreaks was the manner of housing of the inhabitants which, copied from the French, consisted of piling tenement above tenement until a large over-crowded population was confine<l in a limited space, and co(dd only communicate with the outer world by a narrow stair which was aptly described by the late Sir Edwin Chadwick as an njufight street. Many of these blocks of build- ings contained upwards of 200 inhabitants. When infectious di.sease of any kind broke out in such circumstances it spread with great rapidity and quickly assumed the epidemic form. The hospital accom- modation at the disposal of the authorities being limited, the disease was practically allowed to continue its ravages among the population un- checked, until it gradually wore itself out for want of material. Mean- while, the I'epntation of Edinburgh as a residential city and as the great educational centre of Scotland suffered. The Coi'poration in 1863 appointed a medical officer of health, who reported on the sanittiiy requirements of the city, more especially of its poorer districts, which were the hot-beds of infectious di.sease. Lord Provost Chambers in 1867 inaugurated a eomprehen.sive scheme, whereby the insanitary areas in the old town were satisfactorily dealt with under a special Act of Parliament. This scheme came to an end in 1889, and during its continuance 600,000/. has been expended with the following results as regards the general mortality of the city :— From 1865 to 1874 the death-rate was 26'26 per 1,000; from 1875 to 1884 it was 19’94 per 1,000; and from 1885 to 1890 it was 17-51 per 1,000. Another step in advance was the adoption by the Corporation in 1879 of a clause in a local Act enforcing the notification of infections diseases liy medical practitioners. This has been loyally carried out by the profession, and thus for the first time the authorities became aware of the amount of preventible disease in the metropolis of Scotland. Up to 1891 upwards of 60,000 intimations were reported; the fees payable to medical men amounting to nearly 7,500/. One immediate](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28045506_0068.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
