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
London County Council 1904
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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and have made an order limiting a time for the performance of the duty of the authority, the London
County Council shall, if directed by the Local Government Board, withhold the whole or any part of the
payment of the sum due to such authority.
The Act provides that for the purposes of the distribution of the fund an estimate of population
on the 6th April in each year will be made by the Registrar-General upon returns which the Local
Government Board will receive from the authority making the poor rate in each parish showing the total
number of houses entered in the rate book of the parish.
The following table shows the estimated population on the 6th April, 1904, and the amount of excess of contribution over grant, or of grant over contribution in respect of each district for the year ended 31st March, 1905—
| District. | Estimated population, 6th April, 1904. | Equalisation charge, being excess of contribution over grant. | Net grant, being excess of grant over contribution. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s. | d. | s. | d. | ||||
| Paddington | 150,367 | 3,342 | 4 | 9 | - | ||
| Kensington | 179,026 | 17,047 | 4 | 4 | - | ||
| Hammersmith | 114,765 | - | 7,545 | 13 | 8 | ||
| Fulham | 149,090 | - | 12,516 | 9 | 0 | ||
| Chelsea | 71,332 | 4,721 | 14 | 8 | - | ||
| Westminster, City of | 174,271 | 99,232 | 3 | 1 | - | ||
| St. MaryleboDe | 130,589 | 14,469 | 11 | 1 | - | ||
| Hampstead | 84,895 | 6,085 | 19 | - | - | ||
| St. Pancras | 233,099 | - | 6,744 | 14 | - | ||
| Islington | 336,932 | - | 26,544 | 1 | - | ||
| Stoke Newington | 51,810 | - | 2,897 | 13 | 4 | ||
| Hackney | 220,773 | - | 19,367 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Holborn | 56,612 | 11,213 | 9 | 11 | - | ||
| Finsbury | 102,025 | 1,862 | 8 | 8 | - | ||
| London, City of | 25,523 | 118,811 | 7 | 6 | - | ||
| Shoreditch | 116,608 | - | 6,335 | 8 | 8 | ||
| Bethnal-green | 129,118 | - | 15,554 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Stepney | 293,318 | - | 29,126 | 18 | 9 | ||
| Poplar | 169,227 | - | 17,178 | 11 | 9 | ||
| Southwark | 202,144 | - | 13,402 | 16 | 7 | ||
| Bermondsey | 129,856 | - | 5,701 | 8 | 1 | ||
| Lambeth | 305,029 | - | 20,192 | 18 | 2 | ||
| Battersea | 169,770 | - | 12,159 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Wandsworth | 275,009 | - | 18,290 | 7 | 1 | ||
| Camberwell | 263,611 | - | 26,177 | 9 | 2 | ||
| Deptford | 111,060 | - | 9,432 | 11 | 7 | ||
| Greenwich | 99,383 | - | 7,257 | - | 3 | ||
| Lewisham | 148,419 | - | 9,166 | 19 | 1 | ||
| Woolwich | 132,070 | - | 12,149 | 18 | 8 | ||
| Inner Temple | 127 | 596 | 13 | 2 | - | ||
| Middle Temple | 107 | 358 | 10 | 6 | - | ||
Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration.
As a result of representation made concerning the unfitness of army recruits, this Committee
was appointed and its report appeared in the year 1904. The finding of the Committee was that there
were really no data enabling comparison to be made between an earlier and a later period, but that
certain indirect evidence suggested that no progressive physical deterioration of the population had
occurred; indeed, the indications are quite in a contrary direction. The Committee made, however,
a number of recommendations, some of which have an important bearing upon questions immediately
concerning the public health. Thus the Committee recommended the institution of a permanent
anthropometric survey of the population, to be extended in the first instance to young persons in schools
and factories, with a view to providing data for comparison of the physical state of the population at
different times. Such survey would be of great value in measuring the effects upon the population of
various conditions to which they are subject.
The Committee consider it "in the highest degree desirable that a register of sickness not
confined to infectious diseases should be established and maintained." The idea has long been entertained,
and the time appears to have now arrived for carrying such a scheme into effect. If it were
thought well to make a beginning by dealing with the figures of a compact and more or less homogeneous
area, such as the County of London, there should be no difficulty in making arrangements for communication
to a central authority of weekly statements of sickness of certain special kinds brought newly
under treatment in infirmaries, hospitals and dispensaries. Such returns would probably be of value,
and if this fact were demonstrated in London, an extension of the system to the rest of the country
could later readily be made.
Among other questions considered were, the need of taking systematic action with a
view to abatement of overcrowding; the desirability of encouraging the teaching of infant management