London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of Westminster 1930
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
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16
The causes of death are set out in Table IV. There was an increase
among males of deaths from the following causes:—Measles, enteritis,
syphilis, diabetes, diseases of nervous system and suicide.
Among females the causes showing an increase were measles,
syphilis, pulm. tuberculosis, nervous and circulatory diseases and deaths
from accidents of parturition.
The distribution of deaths in the various wards of the City are shown in the following table, and may be compared with the similar figures during the four preceding years:—
Table VII.
| 1926. | 1927. | 1928. | 1929. | 1930. | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. | F. | Total. | M. | F. | Total. | M. | F. | Total. | M. | F. | Total | M. | F. | Total. | |
| Conduit . | — | 5 | 5 | 4 | — | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| Grosvenor | 60 | 64 | 124 | 58 | 67 | 125 | 59 | 78 | 137 | 88 | 63 | 151 | 70 | 61 | 131 |
| Hamlet | 11 | 23 | 34 | 25 | 30 | 55 | 16 | 22 | 38 | 18 | 30 | 48 | 20 | 26 | 46 |
| K. St. George | 58 | 69 | 127 | 74 | 74 | 148 | 54 | 57 | 111 | 66 | 80 | 146 | 62 | 56 | 118 |
| Victoria | 236 | 252 | 488 | 245 | 286 | 531 | 231 | 226 | 457 | 249 | 292 | 541 | 222 | 212 | 434 |
| St. Margaret | 51 | 37 | 88 | 42 | 42 | 84 | 29 | 32 | 61 | 51 | 44 | 95 | 30 | 3 4 | 64 |
| St. John | 204 | 162 | 360 | 217 | 138 | 355 | 173 | 163 | 336 | 298 | 207 | 505 | 186 | 179 | 365 |
| St. Anne | 38 | 32 | 70 | 44 | 33 | 77 | 26 | 23 | 49 | 42 | 28 | 70 | 38 | 18 | 56 |
| Gt. Marlborough | 20 | 14 | 34 | 18 | 15 | 33 | 20 | 17 | 37 | 14 | 15 | 29 | 8 | 8 | 16 |
| Pall Mall | 22 | 8 | 30 | 21 | 9 | 30 | 31 | 7 | 38 | 35 | 6 | 41 | 20 | 7 | 27 |
| Regent | 25 | 18 | 43 | 35 | 20 | 55 | 25 | 12 | 37 | 26 | 24 | 50 | 24 | 24 | 48 |
| Charing Cross | 13 | 6 | 19 | 15 | 7 | 22 | 12 | 8 | 20 | 24 | 7 | 31 | 12 | 11 | 23 |
| Covent Garden | 39 | 39 | 78 | 29 | 35 | 64 | 35 | 29 | 64 | 39 | 41 | 80 | 26 | 28 | 54 |
| Strand | 56 | 6 | 62 | 52 | 5 | 57 | 46 | 10 | 56 | 36 | 5 | 41 | 39 | 3 | 42 |
| Homeless | 22 | 18 | 40 | 29 | 13 | 42 | 26 | 22 | 48 | 22 | 18 | 40 | 28 | 15 | 43 |
Infantile Mortality.—The corrected death-rate of infants for Westminster
was 59.21 per 1,000 births. The mortality among legitimate
infants was 43.2 per 1,000; that of illegitimate 174.6. The infant
mortality rate for London was 59.
The rate for legitimate infants has appreciably declined, whilst
that for illegitimate infants is abnormally high, due to a large degree
to the mothers of these children being temporarily domiciled in Westminster
as inmates of rescue homes or for the purpose of domestic
employment.
The number of infants dying under 1 year was 81, a decrease of 24 on
the figure of last year and as the total number of births shows an increase
of 11, the infantile mortality rate shows a decrease of 18.16 on the
figures of 1929. The chief contributory causes of death were pneumonia,
prematurity, gastro-enteritis and measles. Twenty-three of the 25
premature deaths occurred before the fourth week of life.
Gastro-enteritis accounted for 8 deaths, 5 of the infants being over
four months old.