4 - Cartoon 264 - Highest death rates in Europe

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4 - Cartoon 264 - Highest death rates in Europe

Illustration focusing on the death rates in Dublin, which are identified as the highest in Europe. This is a version of 'Dear, Dirty Dublin. Wanted a Public Health Department', a cartoon published in 'The Lepracaun Cartoon Monthly' in December 1908. Against a background of disease-ridden and decaying slums (some owned by 'City Fathers' - members of Dublin Corporation), an outraged Miss Dublin serves a notice upon the slumbering Public Health Department which states that Dublin has the 'Highest death rate in Europe'. She carries a cat-o-ninetails to whip him into action. The problems facing the Dublin slum dwellers are outlined: disease, defective drains, open sewers, crime, slaughter houses, and contaminated milk. The risk of contagious diseases such as consumption (tuberculosis), diphtheria, and typhoid fever spreading to the rest of the city made middle-class readers anxious for rapid reform.