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
London County Council 1905
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
This page requires JavaScript
14
Shoreditch had, it will be seen, the highest infantile death-rate (183) per 1,000 births and
Hampstead the lowest (98), in the period 1901-4; in the year 1905 Shoreditch had again the highest
(167), the lowest (88) obtaining in St. Marylebone.
The Annual Summary of the Registrar-General for the year 1905 shows that the deaths in
1905 of London children under one year of age were attributed to the following causes—
| Cow-pox | 2 | Meningitis (not tubercular) | 304 |
| Measles (Morbilli) | 392 | Insanity, Gen. Par. of Insane | 1 |
| Scarlet Fever | 34 | Epilepsy | 5 |
| Influenza | 28 | Convulsions | 899 |
| Whooping-cough | 631 | Paraplegia, Disease of cord | 6 |
| Diphtheria | 51 | Nervous System (other diseases) | 37 |
| Cerebro-Spinal Fever | 3 | Heart and blood-vessel diseases | 5 |
| Pyrexia (origin uncertain) | 2 | Croup (not spasmodic nor membranous) | 4 |
| Epidemic Diarrhoea (infective Enteritis) | 1,729 | Bronchitis | 1,206 |
| Diarrhoea, Dysentery | 903 | Asthma, Emphysema | 1 |
| Tetanus | 17 | Pleurisy | 16 |
| Venereal Disease | 290 | Respiratory Diseases (other) | 95 |
| Pneumonia | 1,675 | Tonsilitis, Quinsy | 2 |
| Erysipelas | 64 | Enteritis (not epidemic) | 369 |
| Septicaemia (not puerperal) | 11 | Gastro-Enteritis | 358 |
| Pyaemia (not puerperal) | 15 | Peritonitis | 9 |
| Other infective conditions | 28 | Cirrhosis of liver | 1 |
| Tuberculous Phthisis | 55 | Liver Diseases (other) | 2 |
| " Phthisis" | 8 | Digestive Diseases (other) | 312 |
| Tuberculous Meningitis | 278 | Nephritis, acute | 4 |
| Tuberculous Peritonitis | 145 | Bright's Disease, Albuminuria | 1 |
| Tabes Mesenterica | 97 | Urinary System (other diseases) | 4 |
| Tuberculous Diseases (other) | 174 | Generative organs (diseases of) | 8 |
| Scrofula | Other Diseases | 3,220 | |
| Rheumatic Fever | 4 | Suffocation in bed | 442 |
| Sarcoma | 2 | Accident (other) | 145 |
| Cancer (undefined) | 1 | Homicide | 21 |
| Premature Birth | 2,506 |
The reports of Medical Officers of Health for the year 1905 contain a table prepared under
the instructions of the Local Government Board and giving the number of deaths, from all causes and
certain specified causes, of infants dying at diSerent periods in the first year of life. From the
information thus supplied, the following table has been compiled, showing the figures for London as a
whole.
| Cause of Death. | Under 1 week. | 1-2 Weeks. | 2-3 Weeks. | 3-4 Weeks. | Total under 1 Month. | 1-2 Months. | 2-3 Months. | 3-4 Months. | 4-5 Months. | 5-6 Months. | 6-7 Months. | 7-8 Months. | 8-9 Months. | 9-10 Months. | 10-11 Months. | 11-12 Months. | Total Deaths under one year. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| — | — | — | |||||||||||||||
| — | |||||||||||||||||
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
| — | — | ||||||||||||||||
1 See footnote (2) page 9.