[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green].
- St. Matthew (Bethnal Green, London, England). Parish Council.
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: City of London, London Metropolitan Archives
35/44 page 19
![19 The Return discloses that the length of the New Sewers amounted to 60,643 feet; the Houses Inspected to 4822 ; the Cesspools filled-up to 3197; those emptied to 561; the Houses newly drained to 4904; the Traps to Drains to 2728; the Drains improved to 725; the New Water Closets to 249; those improved to 3085 ; the New Dust Bins to 1044; and the several Nuisances to 5305. During these five years the Paving Works alone cost upwards of £11,760. The preceding paragraphs testify to the progress of Beth nal Green. As we have advanced our defences, so are we reaping our reward. The harvest, in fact, has already begun. In laying before you the Vital Statistics of 1861, it has afforded me much gratification to say that in contrast with London and its East Districts, Bethnal Green attained a higher measure of health and suffered less from Epidemic Deaths :—And further, that the lifetime of those we lost was higher than in any of the periods on which I have previously had to report. Consumption moreover declined, and our liability to die was less. Wherever the absolute mortality is low, the number of deaths in the Epidemic Class is less than the number in the Pulmonary Class ; and, on the contrary, wherever the deaths in the first class exceed or equal those in the third, [now the sixth, with the addition of Consumption] it may be affirmed that the absolute mortality is high. By the above rule of Dr. Parr, the classification of Table 2, shows that our abso lute mortality ranked low last year. But as all sanitary evils fall with greatest force upon those who are unable to quit the scene of their misery, or to provide the means for its alleviation, and as nothing but the adaptation of the present houses to the necessities of healthy existence and the demolition of those houses that are unfit for human habitation can contribute so much to life](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/B19952594_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
