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There were 155 (163) notifications of puerperal fever and 472 (704) notifications
of puerperal pyrexia in 1940.
The deaths from puerperal fever numbered 42 (33) and from other puerperal
causes 43 (67), the deaths per thousand live-births being .98 and l.00 respectively,
giving a total maternal mortality rate of 1.98 (1.97).
Puerperal
fever and
pyrexia:
maternal
mortality
There were 158 (98) notifications of fevers of the enteric group in London in
1940. The deaths numbered 7 (6).
In addition, there were 3 deaths recorded by the Registrar-General of cases
belonging to London which had not been notified within the county. One of these
was an inmate of a mental institution.
Enteric
fevers
There were no notifications of typhus fever during the year.
The deaths from influenza during 1940 numbered 569 (682).
The deaths in London from rheumatic fever in 1940 numbered 49 (78), of
which 14 (30) were among children under 15 years of age.
There were 6,615 (6,994) deaths from cancer in 1940. The death-rate per
thousand was 2.14. There was a decrease of 53 in the deaths among males and
of 326 among females compared with the previous year.
Typhus fever
Influenza
Rheumatic
fever
Cancer
Tuberculosis
The deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis in London during 1940 numbered
2,687 (2,650), giving a death-rate of .87 (.70) per thousand living. There were
318 (302) deaths from other forms of tuberculosis in 1940, the death-rate being
.10 (.08) for the year. In England and Wales as a whole the corresponding deathrates
for pulmonary and non-pulmonary tuberculosis, respectively, were .59 (.54)
and .11 (.10).
The number of primary notifications in metropolitan boroughs during the year
1940, after correction of figures within each metropolitan borough by the exclusion
of cases notified as primary but subsequently found to have been previously notified,
was 4,979 (5,496).
The returns received under the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations,
1930, from the medical officers of health of the metropolitan boroughs show that
there were 22,356 (23,041) cases of pulmonary tuberculosis (12,908 (13,221) males
and 9,448 (9,820) females) and 6,526 (6,737) cases of other forms of tuberculosis
(3,263 (3,402) males and 3,263 (3,335) females) on the registers of the metropolitan
boroughs at the end of 1940.
ADMINISTRATION
Housing
Representation of unfit premises under Section 25 of the Housing Act, 1936,
has continued in abeyance during 1940, but a few applications for preferential
consideration for rehousing on the Council's estates on grounds of ill-health were
received and appropriate recommendations were made thereon to the valuer.
Tuberculous milk
Milk sampling for the presence of tubercle bacilli was interrupted at the outbreak
of war, but was resumed on 1st April, 1940.
During the last nine months of the year 51 (9 per cent.) of 557 completed
examinations of milk showed the presence of tubercle bacilli. None of the
tuberculin tested milk yielded positive results, while accredited milk showed a
ratio of 13.8 per cent., and ungraded milk of 8.1 per cent. positive. All these
percentages show increases over the figures for 1939.
The milk sampled was received from 14 counties; 25 cows were dealt with
under the Tuberculosis Order, 1938. Of the 51 tuberculous samples the source of