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Carshalton Urban Sanitary District.
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1896.
I.—Vital Statistics: Births and Deaths.
1. The population of the Parish in the middle of the year may be estimated at 5,700 persons.
2. The number of Births registered in the Parish during the year was 174, or one less than in the
previous year. The Birth-rate for the year, therefore, was 30.5 per 1,000 of the estimated population.
3. The number of Deaths registered in the Parish during the year was 67, to which must be added
nine deaths in the Epsom Workhouse and County Asylum of persons belonging to the Parish. These 76
deaths represent an Annual Death-rate of 13.3 per 1,000 of the population, estimated as above.
In the other portions of the Surrey Combined Sanitary District the highest Birth-rate for the year
was 26.3, and the lowest was 17.0 ; while the highest Death-rate was 13.0, and the lowest was 9.3.
4. As to the Infant Mortality. The Deaths of Infants under one year were 20 in number, as against
31 in the preceding year, and were equal to 10 per cent. of the registered births, which is below their
previous average rate in the Parish.
5. The deaths from Pulmonary Consumption (8 in number) were at the rate of 1.4 per 1,000 of the
estimated population, and were about the previous average rate in the Parish.
6. The deaths from other lung diseases (Bronchitis, Pleurisy, and Pneumonia) were 7 in number, as
against 18 in the preceding year, and were at the rate of 1.2 per 1,000 of the estimated population,
which is below their previous average rate in the Parish.
(See also Tables I., II., and V. at the end of the Report.)
II.—Summary of Sickness and Mortality from the Seven Principal Zymotic
Diseases, and from the other Diseases which must be notified under
the Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, 1889, and of the action
taken for preventing their spread.
1. No case of Small Pox was reported during the year.
2. Measles caused one death.
3. Whooping Cough caused no death.
4. Scarlet Fever (otherwise called Scarlatina) was notified at three houses, viz. : In January, at a
house in Rochester Row ; in March, at a shop in Carshalton Road, where a second case was notified in
June ; and in November, at a house in Harold Road. Two of the four patients were removed to the
Isolation Hospital at Sutton. None of the illnesses ended fatally.
5. Diphtheria, Croup, and Laryngitis. In February a child was fatally attacked with Diphtheria at
a cottage in Mill Lane ; in March there were two cases at a cottage in Palmerston road, Mill Lane. No
further cases were reported until September, in which month eight cases were notified in four houses in
Pound Street, Harold Road, and Beddington Corner. In November, a case occurred at a house in
Carshalton Road, and, in December, one case was reported in St. Andrew's Road. No case of
Membranous Croup was notified, and no death was attributed to Laryngitis. Altogether there were 13
cases of Diphtheria in eight houses, with one death.
I availed myself of the permission given me by the Council to get a bacteriological examination
made, at their expense, as an aid to diagnosis in doubtful cases of sore.throat, on five occasions, with the
result that only one of the cases was declared to be genuine diphtheria.
6. Enteric (otherwise called Typhoid) Fever. In May, a boy was attacked with this fever at a cottage
in St. John's Road, at which several defects of drainage were subsequently discovered. In September, a
woman who had been nursing her son in Essex through an attack of this disease, failed shortly after her
return to her home in West Street, and died in the following month.