The Vital Statistics of Glasgow

Abstract

IN this Report Dr. Russell presents us with the vital statistics of the city of Glasgow and its districts for 1880, 1881, and 1882, and with some comments on, and inferences to be drawn from, the facts enumerated. Some years ago an Improvement Trust scheme for the sanitary reformation of the houses of the people was elaborated and put into operation. This scheme has achieved “a summary revolution in the worst parts of the city” not apparently before it was wanted, for Dr. Russell shows that some of the districts of Glasgow—notably that known as Bridgegate and Wynds—do not compare favourably even with the worst slums of London or Liverpool. Bridgegate and Wynds had a death-rate for 1880, 1881, and 1882, of 38.3 per thousand, a birth-rate of 37 per 1000, a death-rate under one year per 1000 born of 206, and a death-rate from consumption and acute diseases of the lungs of 16.75—this figure alone being higher even than the total death-rate of many English towns. Much of this district has been improved off the face of the earth—the population in 1881 was 7798, in 1871 14,294—still the houses that are left “are radically bad, and total demolition and destruction is the only remedy.” It is such districts as these that have, as Dr. Russell remarks, “been the heartbreak of successive generations of Glasgow philanthropists.” The death-rate of the city of Glasgow, as a whole, for 1880, 1881, and 1882, was 25.2 per 1000, with a birth-rate of 37.3 per 1000; although considerably less healthy than London, Glasgow compares favourably with Dublin, and stands on about the same level as Liverpool and Manchester. The death-rates of the different districts of the city in 1871–72—prior to the improvement schemes—are compared with those in 1880, 1881, and 1882, subsequent to the carrying out of many improvements in unhealthy areas by demolition and reconstruction. The comparison shows that in all the districts the general death-rate and the death-rate under five years (with one exception) were much lower in the latter period than in the former. “This result,” Dr. Russell remarks, “is important, as proving that the displacement of the inhabitants of the central parts of the city has not deteriorated the health of the districts into which they have removed. It was proved by special investigation that the people whose wretched houses were demolished by the Improvement Trust distributed themselves over the city. It is often said that the habits of these people are such that, go where they please, they will not be the better of the change. It is evident, however, that they found physical conditions so much more conducive to health that, whether or not their habits have been improved, undoubtedly their health has been, in their new residences. The moral is to persevere in the destruction or improvement of the houses of the people. The certain result is to improve their health.”

The Vital Statistics of the City of Glasgow.

Part II. The Districts of Glasgow. By James B. Russell, Medical Officer of Health.