Dublin Health

Dublin Health

Dublin Sanitary Statistics

Dr Mapother, the Medical Officer of Health for Dublin, has recently presented to the Public Health Committee of that city his annual report, reviewing the vital statistics for last year. The report is eminently satisfactory, both as evidence of the existence of a thoroughly efficient sanitary executive in the city, and as recording an improvement in the standard of health there prevailing during 1868. The death rate in Dublin city per 1,000 persons living, which in 1866 and 1867 had been 29.5 and 28.9, further declined last year to 26.7. This rate, although 3 per 1,000 in excess of that which prevailed in London last year, compares favourably with the rates in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and several other large towns for the same period.

It may be usefully noted that the annual death rates in Dublin, in the four quarters of last year, were respectively 32, 24.1, 24.9, and 22.8 from these it appears that the principal excess of deaths occurred in the three months ending March, the excess being mainly due to the fatality of diseases of the respiratory organs. In examining the death-rate of a city as evidence of its sanitary condition, it is natural first to ascertain the mortality from zymotic diseases. The report tells us, that of the 6,604 deaths registered in 1868 in the city of Dublin, 1,526 were referred to this class of diseases, against 2,309 and 1,673 in 1866 and 1867. Allowing for the mortality from cholera, which caused a great part of the excess in 1866, these figures show a satisfactory and progressive decline in the deaths from these causes. The 1,526 deaths in 1868 formed 23.1 % of the total deaths, a proportion which although affording a large field for future exertions of the Public Health Committee and the officer of health in Dublin, compares favourably with the proportion in London, where during 1868, 25.2% of the deaths resulted from zymotic , and as they were justly termed preventable diseases. Perhaps the deaths from typhus, typhoid, continued, and other forms of fever, may be most safely taken as an index of the sanitary condition of large towns. The deaths from all forms of fever, which in Dublin in the three years 1865-67 had been 492,480, and 309, further declined last year to 256 in 1868. If any further evidence were necessary of the declining prevalence of fever in Dublin, it is afforded by the report in the following statement. The Hardwicke, and Cork Street Fever Hospitals received from city dwellings during 1865-68 3,245 ; 2,536 ; 1,841 ; and 1,211 patients respectively or in the ration of 127 ; 99 ; 72; and 49 out of each 10,000 of the population.

The report details at considerable length the machinery by which the medical officer of health, and his 8 assisting sanitary sergeants of police, are immediately informed of all deaths from fever and other zymotic diseases, and what is almost more important, how they receive bi-weekly lists of the patients admitted to the fever hospitals : and, moreover, the addresses of all patients suffering from infectious diseases are furnished by the 14 dispensary physicians. We must especially commend this portion of the report to all those interested in the sanitary administration of large towns. Not only has the mortality from fever declined, but measles caused in 1868 less than a sixth of the deaths from that disease in 1867. Small-pox also, to which 70 and 23 deaths were referred in 1865 and 1866, has been almost eradicated, causing only one death in 1867 and not one in 1868. Scarlatina and diarrhoea formed exceptions in 1868 to the declining mortality from this class of diseases. Scarlatina was fatally prevalent in Dublin in the latter part of 1868, and resulted during the year in 377 deaths, whereas in 1865-67 only 43, 63, and 199 respectively. It will be remembered that scaralatina was extensively fatal during 1868 in London, Manchester, and many other large towns, and assumed a severely epidemic form. The 367 deaths from diarrhoea in 1868 against 194 in 1867, is explained by the intense heat of the summer. Four-fifths of these deaths were of children under 5 years of age, although infantile diarrhoea was far less fatal in Dublin than in many other large towns.

The mortality from diseases of the respiratory organs is always largely influenced by the general sanitary condition of a community; a low standard of health is especially conducive to phthisis. It is not therefore surprising to find that in recent years the mortality from this disease has declined, influenced, no doubt, partly by an improved and extended system of sewerage. In the 4 years 1865-68 the deaths from phthisis have been 969, 929, 831, and 804 respectively. Bronchitis caused 858 deaths last year, and the disease is reported to be still one-third more fatal than in London. The periodical inspection of the workshops in Dublin, which has till recently been but imperfectly carried out, the opening of more spaces for play-grounds, the improvements of the dwellings for the poor, and the erection of public baths, are pointed out among other measures, the adoption of which would probably still further reduce the mortality from diseases of the lungs. Dr. Mapother shows that abundant and useful sanitary work has been carried on under his superintendence during the past year, which can scarcely fail to effect a still further decline in the death-rate during the current year; he, however, regrets, in conclusion, that the non- extension of the Local Government Act to Ireland, and the general unsatisfactory state of the Sanitary Acts, through want of codification, considerably militate against the usefulness of himself and his assistants. It is to be hoped that the legislative failings here pointed out, the latter of which is also widely felt in England, may receive attention during the present session.
Source: The Builder 1869 Vol XXVII 10th April 1869 p.279
Submitted by Alan Longbottom.