Public Health - August 1849

The report on the public health of Londoners was a frequent column in The Times. In this section, a report from the Registrar-General would outline the registered deaths and illnesses that had ravaged the people of London throughout the week. While these articles on the public health tend to result in a feeling of hopelessness, they would, in the end, finish off on a positive note, as the numbers of registered births were reported. Typically, the report was nothing other than a list of numbers and facts.  That is why this following article caught my attention. In this particular public health report, the focus is entirely on the impact that cholera has had on the population. This article was more than a list of numbers and facts; you can hear the author's voice in this article as he questions who should be blamed for the outbreaks of cholera that are sweeping through the city. After stating the increase in deaths caused by cholera, the author takes note of the resources that have gone into catching two murderers who had a killed a man on August 9, and suggests that the same quantity and quality of resources and efforts should be used to combat the cholera epidemic.  

The Times Wednesday, Aug 29, 1849; pg. 5; Issue 20267; col A

The report reads: 

THE HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.

(From the Registrar-General’s Return.)

      In the week ending Saturday, August 25, the deaths in London were 2,45; of which 1276 were by cholera, 238 by diarrhoea. The deaths from all causes in each of the last seven weeks were 1,070, 1,369,   1,741,  1,931,  1,967,  1,909,  2,229,  2,457; the deaths from cholera, 152,  339,  678,  783,  929,  823,  1,229, and 1,276. Although the number of deaths last week is greater than any number yet recorded, it is gratifying to learn that active measures are now in actual operation, or commencing in every district, to combat the great epidemic which has already destroyed 7,470 lives in London. The mortality stands in favourable contrast to that which has been felt in other cities, where the visitation has recalled the ravages of the middle ages. But if the general sanitary state and arrangements are superior to those of the other civilized countries of Europe, it is quite certain that while the present epidemic has excited some talk and terror, the efforts which have hitherto been employed to combat it look feeble and insignificant when contrasted with the vast means and agency which are brought to bear by the nation in other fields for the protection of life and property.

     The energy with which parts of our institutions work makes the defects of the rest more evident. On August 9 last, a man was murdered in Bermondsey, and before his death, reported by the coroner, will appear in these returns, one, and it is probable both the persons charged with the murder will be in custody. Steam ships, the electric telegraph, the heads of the police, and professional agents, specially chosen, were all employed to arrest the destroyers of this life; the columns of the newspapers were filled with the details of the death. On the same day (August 9) a stock-broker died at No.12, Albion-terrace, Wandsworth-road;  a widow lady, and an old domestic servant at No.6; in the five preceding days in the same terrace the daughter of a grocer, a child of five years of age, had died at No.1; the widow of a coach proprietor, and a commercial clerk, at No.2; a gentleman’s widow at No.3; a surgeon’s daughter at No.4; a spinster of 41 at No.5; the wife of a Dissenting minister, his mother, a widow lady, and a servant at No.6; a young woman of 21 at No.10; a gentleman at No.12, where the stock-broker had died; a commercial clerk and a young woman of 19 at No. 13, where a young woman had also died on July 28; a gentleman’s wife at No.14, who had seen her daughter die there the day before. The 19 persons died of cholera, many of the inhabitants of the terrace were dispersed; and the deaths of several have been registered elsewhere. “It appears,” says the registrar, Mr. Frost, “that at No.13, inhabited by Mr. Biddle, where the first death occurred, and where two deaths were afterwards registered, the refuse of the house had been allowed to accumulate in one of the vaults (which is a very large one) for about two years, a when removed last week, the stench was almost intolerable, there being about two feet of wet soil filled with maggots. The drains also had burst, overflowed into the tank, and impregnated the water with which the houses were supplied. On the back ground, in the distance, was an open ditch, into which nearly the whole of the soil of Clapham runs.” As turpentine to flames, so is the exhalation of such cellars, tanks, and sewers to cholera; it diffused itself rapidly, attacked many, and 19 inhabitants, after some hours of suffering, sickness, and spasms, expired.

     The effects of decomposing refuse and water on health were well known – their fatal subsidies to cholera had been heard of every day; yet no steps had been taken for their removal from Albion-terrace in July, no medical police had interfered to disturb the contents of Mr. Biddle’s cellar; and now the nineteen of the masters, servants, parents, children rest in their graves, it appears to be taken for granted that blame attaches to nobody – to nothing – to the householders themselves – to the guardians of the district – to the institutions of the country! Such mean intangible instruments of death can be invested with no dramatic interest; but fixing our eyes on the victims, it is well worth considering whether substantially it is not as much a part of the sound policy of the country that lives like those on Albion-terrace should be saves, as that the murderers of the man in Bermondsey should be hanged... 

After the epidemic of cholera in London in 1849, there would be another in 1853/4. It was through the work of Dr. John Snow that cholera was recognized as a disease that spread through contaminated water or food, not by inhalation. Over time and efforts to restrict the water supply and locate sources of contaminated water, the epidemic was contained.