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
Merton and Morden 1949
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Merton & Morden]
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Climatic Conditions. Rain gauges are installed at the
Joseph Hood Recreation Ground and West Barnes Pumping
Station.
The monthly recordings are as shown below: —
| MONTH | JOSEPH HOOD RECREATION GROUND | WEST BARNES PUMPING STATION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inches | Days with 0.01in. or more | Days with 0.04in. or more | Inches | Days with 0.01in. or more | Days with 0.04in. or more | |
| January | .96 | 12 | 7 | 1.21 | 14 | 7 |
| February | .89 | 9 | 6 | 1.06 | 12 | 7 |
| March | .83 | 6 | 4 | .91 | 5 | 4 |
| April | 1.70 | 8 | 7 | 1.87 | 9 | 7 |
| May | 2.11 | 15 | 10 | 2.24 | 16 | 10 |
| June | .62 | 5 | 3 | .68 | 5 | 4 |
| July | 1.65 | 8 | 5 | 1.24 | 8 | 5 |
| August | 1.21 | 7 | 6 | 1.24 | 5 | 4 |
| September | .62 | 9 | 6 | .59 | 8 | 6 |
| October | 5.57 | 14 | 13 | 5.72 | 16 | 14 |
| November | 2.27 | 18 | 13 | 2.42 | 20 | 14 |
| December | 1.33 | 20 | 8 | 1.55 | 21 | 9 |
| Total | 19.76 | 131 | 88 | 20.73 | 139 | 91 |
VITAL STATISTICS.
The summary of vital statistics on page 8 shows two
salient features, a decrease in the number of births and an
increase in the number of deaths over last year, with the
resulting lowest natural increase for 9 years. Our birth rate is
now 13.05 compared with 14.45 last year, and our death rate
8.98 compared with 7.6 last year. It is some consolation to
know that this is not a local phenomenon, the birth and death
rates for England and Wales, London, the 126 great and the
148 smaller towns, given in Table I of Comparative Statistics,
also show the same change.
It is gratifying to turn to those rates over which we have
more control. Our infant mortality rate at 24.36, our maternal
mortality rate at nil, our stillbirth rate at 0.27, and our infant
death rate from enteritis and diarrhoea at nil are by a considerable
margin the most favourable shown in the table.
With the exception of Scarlet Fever, Whooping Cough and
Measles our infectious disease rate is also more favourable
than any available for comparison. I have mentioned in the
section on Infectious Disease that the explanation of the higher
rate for these three diseases is to be found in the fact that
doctors are not always called in for these conditions but that
here a greater proportion of parents seek medical advice and in
consequence we get a higher notification rate.
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