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To the Chairman and Members of the Heston and
Isleworth Urban District Council.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit to you the following Report on the health
and sanitary condition of the District of Heston and Isleworth for the year
1904, the fourth Annual Report I have been responsible for since you
appointed me your Medical Officer of Health.
In the Reports for the years 1902 and 1903 an attempt was made to
present separate figures for the two parishes of Heston and Isleworth, in
addition to the total numbers for the District as a whole. On examining
these figures again, I have found that the numbers of births and deaths given
for the separate parishes in those two years are not correct, and that therefore
the death-rates and birth-rates are also misleading, though the figures
for the whole District are correct. This error has arisen from the fact that
in the returns supplied to me by the local Registrar the addresses were in
many instances not correctly given, and it was not stated in all instances
whether births and deaths occurring in Hounslow or other parts were actually
in Heston or Isleworth. A considerable number of deaths and births were
thus by mistake credited to Heston, when in fact they should have been
placed in Isleworth. I have in the present Report eliminated all figures for
the two previous years which are not reliable, and I have carefully verified
as far as possible the addresses of all births and deaths registered during the
year 1904. The statistics for the separate parishes now given may therefore
be taken as correct.
I would take this opportunity, however, of pointing out that too much
importance must not be placed on separate statistics for the two portions of
the District, and that the health of the District must be judged from the
figures given for the whole.