The annual report on the state of public health in Dublin in 1891 showed an improvement in infant mortality compared to earlier years but the 172 deaths from typhoid, a rate of 52 per 100,000 inhabitants, equalled more than double the British rate. An editorial in The Irish Timeslooked at the reasons why. – JOE JOYCE
‘WHY,” TO quote the language of the report, “there should be more typhoid fever in Dublin than nearly every other town in the United Kingdom, and why in 1891, and especially in 1889, it was much more prevalent than in other years, has not been satisfactorily explained.
“Defects in the house drains and the pressure of sewage matters in the soil have been held as the chief causes of the excessive amount of typhoid fever in Dublin. There is no doubt that the state of the house drains and their traps is, in the case of a large proportion of houses, very defective, but it is equally certain that it is now much less defective than formerly.”
But at the same time the sanitation of Dublin has vastly been improved within the past ten or twelve years, and yet while the general zymotic death-rate continues to decline, typhoid more than maintains its ground. The one theory suggested is that the sub-soil is saturated with water which has been allowed to accumulate, rendering the site of Dublin damp and unhealthy, and this is the most likely explanation.
Sir Charles Cameron goes on to say – “It seems to me that no accurate scientific explanation of the cause of the undue prevalence of typhoid fever in Dublin has yet been published. The most probable hypotheses are those which indicate polluted soil and defective sewers and house drains as the principal causes. As to soil pollution, there is no doubt that it prevails largely in Dublin.”
The greater part of Dublin is built upon literally a “water-logged site”. The tide rises in the river to a height which is above the ground floor of many of the basement storeys.
“For the greater part of the twenty-four hours, the mouths of the main sewers which open on the Liffey are closed by valvular tidal gates. It is only when the tide is low that the sewage of Dublin flows into its outlet, the River Liffey, and it is only when the tide is out that the sub-soils are drained.
“For a large portion of the day, therefore, drainage is suspended in the soils, and they acquire that damp, and in summer, warm conditions, so favourable to the development of low organism.”
This portion of Sir Charles Cameron’s report is the most interesting and important, and we only now indicate its general features. It will be discussed with the utmost care and anxiety. [...] For the present we need add but one word. The sanitary authorities, it is evident, have done their duty.
Their hands have been full of work, and to the energy by them displayed we must attribute much of the change for the better in the conditions of public health.
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