Mr John Spear's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the urban sanitary district of Quickmire.

  • Spear, John.
Date:
1879
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr John Spear's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the urban sanitary district of Quickmire. 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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    Mr. John Spear’s Report to the Local Government Board on the Sanitary Condition of the Urban Sanitary District of Quick- mere. Edward C. Seaton, M.D., j\je(jlcal Department, September 26, 1879. The Urban Sanitary District of Quickmere, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, about Site, three miles from Oldham, stands at the eastern border of the Lancashire coal Geology, field. The soil consists of loose shale and marl, beneath which is the sandstone of the coal formation. The area of the district is 523 acres, the Lees Brook, a tributary of the Medlock, Area, forming its boundary on the south and east. The enumerated population of 1871 was 3,358, and the estimate for the present year Population, is 3,800. The cotton and woollen manufactures are the staple industries. In receiving instructions as to this inspection I was directed to “ inquire into the Pb3ect of “ circumstances under which fever had recently been prevalent at Quickmere, and into lntlulI7* “ the general sanitary condition of that districtbut as regards the first-named Prevalence subject of inquiry, matters were somewhat complicated by my finding that the of fever. Sanitary Authority, backed by the opinion of their Medical Officer of Health, denied the fact of there having been any recent prevalence of fever, and that the official death registers of the district, on the authority of which the assertion of such pre- valence had been made, were so defective as to render their information on the subject little trustworthy. Thus it appeared that during the first quarter of the current year no less than 40 per cent, of the deaths were uncertified; and that of the five deaths registered as from fever (three from typhus and two from typhoid), which had particularly attracted the notice of the Board, the three former had been registered under the certificate of a person styling himself a “ medical botanist,” and were, at least two of them, cases not of typhus but of scarlet fever, whilst one of the cases of typhoid fever occurred beyond the boundary of the district. On the other hand, during the same three months, three deaths registered as from “ pneumonia,” and one ascribed to “ acute gastritis,” occurred in families in which fever (probably enteric) at the time prevailed; a discovery which tends to the con- clusion that deaths properly attributable to fever probably often escape registration under that head. The defects of registration referred to do not, however, vitiate the evidence deducible from the general mortality of the district, and this evidence it will be seen by reference to the subjoined table is particularly unfavourable to the sanitary reputa- tion of Quickmere. The mortality from all causes, exclusive of deaths in the work- house, reaches an annual average of 26 ■ 7 per 1,000; a death-rate above that of most of our largest and most crowded towns. It is evident, too, from these statistics, making every allowance for defective registration, that some form or other of zymotic disease is almost always prevalent in the district; that this indeed is so—that scarlet fever at short intervals becomes fatally prevalent, that diarrhoea is often most prevalent and fatal in the summer months, that small localized outbreaks of enteric fever are constantly recurring, especially in the outlying villages—is the conclusion at which I arrived from conversations with medical practitioners, and from personal inquiry amongst the general public. Mortality Statistics of Quickmere for Recent Years. Date. Estimated Population. Total Deaths. Births. Deaths under 1. Death Rate per Annum from all Causes. Deaths under 1 to Births per 1,000. Seven principal Zymotic Diseases, Death Rate per 1,000. Small-pox. Measles. Scarlatina. Diphtheria. to P. tL o p 2 ° Fever. Diarrhoea. Other Zymo- tics. Phthisis. C.rf a c .SS ° IE E o - p c c Ph u cq Heart Disease. 1873 1871 1875 1876 1877 1878 1st quarter of 1879 3.4,18 3,500 3,580 3,650 3,720 3,770 3,800 99 93 93 88 93 92 29 154 144 137 30 23 37 26 23 29 20 5 28'7 26'2 26-0 24’1 25-0 24-3 30-5 150 200 146 166 6*4 5'5 2-8 5'7 6‘2 4‘2 8’4 2 5 1 6 1 2 2 7 11 2 2 2 2 1 2 3 5 4 2 1 3 4 14 8 6 9 10 2 4 1 2 5 4 3 13 14 9 4 10 15 6 20 15 23 16 11 13 8 8 6 1 2 6 4 1 Annual mean of 61 years. 3,600 96'4 26-7 5‘5 - Note.—This return is subject to the addition of such deaths as occurred m the Saddleworth Union Workhouse, amongst persons belonein - to Quickmere. The information necessary to distinguish between such deathsandthe total number registered in thkt institution cannot it § said be obtained; but an examination of the books leads me to believe that about four deaths annually might be so apportioned This wou d She the death rate to an annual average rate of 27*8 per 1,000.—J. S. uuuvu, xuib wouiq laise N 219. Wt. 6170. A