Memorandum for the chairman of the Sanitary Committee, to accompany a map of the sanitary districts of Glasgow / by the Medical Officer of Health, November, 1865.

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorandum for the chairman of the Sanitary Committee, to accompany a map of the sanitary districts of Glasgow / by the Medical Officer of Health, November, 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    G exceed, or fell fshort of, some part of the best west-end distncts ; some of these comparatively favoured districts, too, being iu immediate proximity to districts which suffered heavily from fever. Against the accuracy of these ligures, tliere is no doubt to be set the fact, that in these districts the population was to a great extent of a highly r&spectable, if not wealthy class ; and that a considemble number of cases might therefore altogether escape being repoi*ted, from their having been attended exclusively by private medical men at their own houses} but all medical experience goes to show that cases so attended would be mostly isolated, and would not multiply in such numbers as very greatly to inci’easo the apparent epidemic rate of .fever in the general community. I am willing, never- theless, to make large allowance for the source of fallacy hei’e alluded to, and it may perhaps be eliminated from considenition at present, as follows;—In 12 of the 54 Sanitary districts,® I find afever- * These twelve districts, having reported rates of fever invasion varying from I'S to 7 in e.och 1000 inhabitants, are named as follow’s:—1. Blyths- wood and Woodside. 2. Kelviuhangh and Ijancelield. 3. Craustonhill. 4. St. Matthew’s. 5. Cowcaddens. G. Bell’s Park. 7. Exchange. 8. fJreenhead. 9. Kingston. 10. Portland (Lanricston). 11. Greenside. 12. Hutcheson. Of these, the first four comprise the greater part of tlie “west-end” within the bounds of police, and form an aggregate of 52,33G inhabitants, with 178 reported fever cases iu 1SG4, or (allowing for increase of jiopulation) probably less than 3 in 1000 inhabitants. No. 5, a district of 90G2 inhabitants, closely adjoining a district to the north having a great amount of fever, has what, under these circumstances, 1 regard as the remarkably small fever rate of 2 9 in each 1000 inhabitants. Ko. G, the high-lying and respectable district north of Cathedral Street, has G2G9 inhabitants, and a reported rate of only 2‘2. The business district of the Exchange is rated at 7 in 1000 inhabitants; the east-end district of Green- head at 5'4 in 1000. The four southern districts. Nos. 9 to 12, comprise almost the entire middle-class population of the south side of the nver, (excluding the lower part of Gorbals and Hutchesontown); these four districts have an aggregate population of 29,151, and a fever-rate of 3‘G in 1000 inhabitants. It is remarkable that the Greenside district, comprising the streets between the Caledonian 8outh-Side Station and the worst part of the Gorbals district, is not, ajiparently, unfavourably affected by tlio proximity of the latter, having a rate of only P8 in 1000, or exactly the same as the great west-end district of Blythswood and Woodside. The details, indeed, of the returns before me convey most distinctly the impres- sion that the security of a district, or street, is not much affected l>y the state of the adjoining districts, if its population is exempt in other respects from the predisposing causes of fever. Thus, the district of St. Ninians, with a fever rate of 21 '4 in 1000, fails to infect that of Greenside, separated only by a street; and the district of North Cowcaddens, comprising the worst part of the Milton district, with the very high fever-rate of 22 '5 in 1000, IS iu immediate relations with the Cowcaddens district, the fever- rate of which, as above stated, is less tlian that of the west-end taken as a whole. The conclusion would ajipcar to follow' that the internal state of a district is of much moi-e importance than its surroundings;. and even, jicrhaps, that the latter arc of little consequence, when there is not very direct intercourse between two adjoining districts.