100 TYPHUS FEVER 



Creighton writes : 



But the Eighteenth Century, even the most prosperous part of it, from the 

 accession of George I to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 

 last quarter or third of it, was none the less a most unwholesome period in 

 the history of England. The health of London was never worse than in those 

 years, and the vital stastistics of some other towns, such as Norwich, are little 

 more satisfactory. 



In 1782, White wrote of the fever in London : 



The annual deaths under the old regime exceeded by a good deal the 

 annual births; in the seven years, 1728-35, according to the figures in the parish 

 registers, the burials from all causes were 3,488 and the baptisms 2,803, an 

 annual excess of 98 deaths over the births in an estimated population of 10,800 

 (birth rate 37 per 1,000, death rate 46 per 1,000). 



Creighton says: 



The mean annual deaths were never higher in London, not even in plague 

 times over a series of years, the fever deaths keeping pace with the mortality 

 from all causes, and, in the great epidemic of typhus in 1741, making about a 

 fourth part of the whole. The populace lived in a bad atmosphere, physical 

 and moral. 



It is stated that the consumption of alcohol in London amounted to 

 six gallons per head per annum. A duty of 20 shillings per gallon did 

 not prevent the poor from getting it, and large quantities of gin were 

 smuggled in from Holland. In 1726 the College of Physicians pre- 

 sented this matter to the House of Commons with the following state- 

 ment: 



We have with concern observed for some years past the fatal effects of 

 the frequent use of several sorts of distilled spirituous liquor upon great num- 

 bers of both sexes, rendering them diseased, not fit for business, poor, a burthen 

 to themselves* and neighbors, and too often the cause of weak, feeble and dis- 

 tempered children, who must be, instead of an advantage and strength, a charge 

 to their country. 



The poor in London were crowded into small quarters. In 1737 

 one house was found to contain eleven married couples and fifteen 

 single persons. A tax was levied on each window in a house and 

 each window in cellar, stairway and outhouse was counted and skylight 

 included. "No window or light shall be deemed to be stopped up 

 unless such window or light shall be stopped up effectually with stone 

 or brick or plaister on lath." 



