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
Islington 1914
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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42
1914]
In England and Wales, in the ninety-seven great towns, in the smaller towns, in the rural districts, in the seven greatest towns, and in the boroughs surrounding Islington, the infantile mortality was as follows: —
| England and Wales | 105 per 1,000 births | |
| 97 Great Towns | 114 | |
| 145 Smaller Towns | 104 „ | |
| Rural Districts | 93 | |
| London | 104 „ | |
| Birmingham | 122 „ | |
| Liverpool | 139 „ | |
| Manchester | 127 „ | |
| Leeds | 123 „ | |
| Bristol | 100 „ | |
| Sheffield | 132 „ | |
| The Encircling Boroughs. | Hornsey | 57 „ |
| Stoke Newington | 78 „ | |
| Hackney | ||
| Shoreditch | 141 „ | |
| Finsbury | 123 „ | |
| St. Pancras | 92 „ | |
| V The Encircling Boroughs | 101 „ | |
MORTALITY FROM THE PRINCIPAL EPIDEMIC DISEASES.
Small Pox, Measles, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Fevers
(Typhus, Enteric and Continued) and Diarrhceal Diseases.
Four hundred and thirty-five deaths were registered, which were equal to
an annual death-rate of 1.34 per 1,000, as contrasted with 449 and a death-rate
of 1 38 in the ten years immediately preceding. The death-rate is therefore
practically the same as that which obtained from 1904-1913 inclusive. There
was, however, an increase as contrasted with the number of deaths which
occurred in 1913, when the deaths numbered only 322, and the death-rate
was only 0-97, which, with one exception, was the lowest hitherto recorded
in the borough. The decrease, when compared with the preceding decennium,
was entirely due to the much fewer deaths from Measles; otherwise, owing to an
increase in the deaths from Diarrhosal Diseases, the death-rate would not have
been quite so satisfactory.
A return, showing the deaths from the principal epidemic diseases for the
last 20 years is attached, where it will be seen that there has been a fall from
3.69 per 1,000 in 1885, to 1.34 in 1914. The record of the decline in infectious
disease is gratifying, for a study of Table XXXI. reveals the pleasing fact that,
of late years, there has undoubtedly been a diminution in the number of deaths
from the principal Zymotic Diseases.