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
Chiswick 1894
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Chiswick]
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5
The usual mortality from diseases of the
organs of respiration, usual in the winter months,
resulted in 56 deaths, 10 less than in the year 1893.
From phthisis and other tubercular diseases there
were 37 deaths (an excess of 11 on the year 1893),
but from heart disease there was a decreased fatality,
13 deaths ; whilst for 1893 there were 32 deaths.
During the year there were 29 sudden deaths,
necessitating Coroner's Inquests, of which 17 were due
to natural causes, 6 the result of accidents, 1 from
exposure during the delirium of scarlet fever, 3 from
convulsions, and 2 from accidental suffocation.
The following table epitomises the ages at which the deaths occurred:
| Deaths under one year | 93 | 131 under 5 years of age. |
| ,, from 1 and under 5 | 38 | |
| ,, ,, 5 ,, 15 | 13 | 182 over 5 years of age. |
| ,, „ 15 ,, 25 | 16 | |
| ,, ,, 25 „ 65 | 91 | |
| ,, over 65 years | 62 | |
| 313 |
Eight of the deaths occurred between the ages
of 80 and 90, and 2 attained the age of 93.
Infantile Mortality.
The rate of this mortality or the proportion of
deaths under one year of age in every thousand births
was 131, being 23 less than the preceding year; for
London it was 143, and for England and Wales 137.
The falling death rate that has been proceeding .
for several years is, in a great measure, due to the
saving of young lives by the application of the laws
of hygiene, consequently a greater number of persons
reach maturity than formerly.