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
Willesden 1907
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Willesden]
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14
The normal high mortality among infants in the third quarter of
the year is due to zymotic diarrhcea. If we compare the deaths from
this disease in the third quarter of 1907 with the deaths in corresponding
quarters of previous years we get the following results.
| Diarrhœa. | Enteritis. | 4ft. earth temperature | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The low mortality from Zymotic Diarrhoea in 1907 is just what
would be expected from the meteorological facts of the summer and
autumn. Over 20 years ago Dr. Ballard arrived at the following
conclusions concerning Zymotic Diarrhœa:—
(a) " The summer rise of diarrhœal mortality does not commence
until the mean temperature recorded by the four-foot earth thermometer
has attained somewhere about 56° F., no matter what may
have been the temperature previously attained by the atmosphere or
recorded by the one-foot earth thermometer.
(b) The maximum diarrhœal mortality of the year is usually
observed in the week in which the temperature recorded by the fourfoot
earth thermometer attains its mean weekly maximum.
(c) The decline of the diarrhœal mortality is in this connection
not less instructive, perhaps more so, than its rise. It coincides with
the decline of the temperature recorded by the four-foot earth thermometer,
which temperature declines very much more slowly than