London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1900
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
This page requires JavaScript
6
[Appendix IV.
short of the standard recommended by the Royal Commission on Yaecination. There is also a
steadily increasing population which is totally unprotected against small.pox. When that population
has attained the requisite proportion to the whole population, an epidemic of small.pox may
be expected of proportions which will do more to remove the present prejudice against vaccination
than any arguments which the most eloquent pen can urge.
SICKNESS.
The (648) cases of infectious disease reported in pursuance of Sec. 55 (4) of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, were fewer by 189 than in 1899, a reduction equal to 22.6 per cent,
compared with a reduction of 16'6 per cent, recorded in the Metropolis as a whole. The increases
and decreases in the recorded cases of each disease in Paddington and the Metropolis are indicated
in Table 6. In 1898, 772 cases were recorded in the Parish, in 1897, 1,008, and in 1896, 1,226.
TABLE 6. Comparison of Notification Returns for 1899 and 1900.
| Paddington. | London. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900. | 1899. | Increase (+). | 1900. | 1899. | Increase (+). | ||
| Decrease (—). | Decrease (—). | ||||||
| Small.pox | 5 | + 5 | 89 | 29 | + 60 | ||
| Cholera | ... | ... | 0 | 5 | 15 | —10 | |
| Diphtheria | 151 | 201 | —50 | 11,799 | 13,366 | —1,537 | |
| Membranous Croup | 3 | 2 | + 1 | 210 | 339 | —129 | |
| Erysipelas | 120 | 146 | —26 | 4,781 | 5,615 | —834 | |
| Fevers. | Scarlet | 302 | 382 | —80 | 13,819 | 18,113 | —4,294 |
| Typhus | 2 | 1 | + 1 | 7 | 14 | —7 | |
| Enteric | 56 | 97 | —41 | 4,314 | 4,463 | —149 | |
| Relapsing | ... | 0 | 1 | —1 | |||
| Continued | 3 | 1 | + 2 | 73 | 69 | + 4 | |
| Puerperal | 6 | 7 | —1 | 283 | 330 | —47 | |
In comparison with the mean for the preceding ten years, the local returns show a reduction
of 338 cases in all, equal to 32.3 per cent., and the Metropolitan of 9,530 cases, equal to 21.3 per
cent. An examination of Table 7 will show that, as regards Paddington, the recorded eases of all
diseases, except those of typhus (increase unreal) and continued fevers, were below the corrected and
adjusted averages. In the Metropolis the recorded cases of diphtheria and enteric fever were
above the averages. In the same Table will be found the morbidity rates for the past
four years. The most satisfactory item under this head, as regards both Paddington and the
Metropolis, is the reduction in the diphtheria rate. There has also been a reduction in the rate for