Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1909
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At every age-period except the last males show a higher mortality than females, the discrepancy
being due partly to the greater risks attending the occupations followed by men and partly to their
greater tendency to intemperance. The death-rate amongst children under 5 years of age is more
than twenty times as great as among older children and is not again equalled until the age period
65 to 75 has been entered upon.
The number of deaths at all ages with the corresponding death-rates in the Borough, in North and South Kensington andin the several Wards was as follows:—
Districts. | Number of Deaths. | Crude Death-rate per 1,000 inhabitants. |
---|---|---|
North Kensington | 1,521 | 16.3 |
South Kensington | 928 | 10.6 |
St. Charles | 398 | 17.7 |
Golborne | 439 | 16.2 |
Norland | 448 | 18.6 |
Pembridge | 23G | 11.9 |
Holland | 267 | 12.2 |
Earl's Court | 229 | 12.4 |
Queen's Gate | 94 | 6.4 |
Redcliffe | 233 | 12.1 |
Brompton | 115 | 7.9 |
The Borough | 2,449 | 13.5 |
The mortality in North Kensington was very much greater than in South Kensington, the
difference being mainly due to the prevalence of poverty in the former area. A certain proportion of
the discrepancy must be attributed to the age and sex composition of the South Kensington population,
since a death-rate of less than 10 implies an average age at death of 100. The crude deathrates
for Queen's Gate and Brompton indicate an average age at death of 143 and if the explanation
did not rest on the age and sex distribution of the population, for those that died in early life others
would be destined to live to ages exceeding 200 in order that the average might be maintained.
Corrected death-rates for the several wards cannot be calculated since the census returns do not
give the age and sex composition of the population except for the Borough as a whole.
Principal Zymotic (or infectious) diseases | 184 |
Epidemic influenza | 75 |
Enteritis | 22 |
Puerperal fever | 4 |
Phthisis | 168 |
Other tuberculous diseases | 69 |
Cancer | 205 |
Bronchitis | 232 |
Pneumonia | 253 |
Heart diseases | 267 |
Bright's disease | 53 |
Diseases and accidents of parturition | 12 |
Premature birth | 69 |
Accidents | 70 |
Old age | 94 |
All other causes | 672 |
2449 |
The diseases described in the above list as the "principal zymotic diseases," are small-pox,
measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, enteric fever (including fever not otherwise
defined) and diarrhœa.