View report page

ANNUAL REPORT
OF
MEDICAL OFFICER.
TO THE VESTRY OF BERMONDSEY.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
The following Report embraces a period of
fifty-two weeks, which ended on the Second day
of January, 1886. It is the Tenth Annual
Statement of the vital statistics of the Parish
of Bermondsey, which it has been my duty to
submit to the Vestry.
The low rate of mortality from all causes which
prevailed in 1884, shewed a further decline in
1885. This is especially remarkable in the number
of deaths from diseases of the zymotic class which
fell during the past year to a point which is without
parallel in the records of the last quarter of a
century. The low birth-rates of recent years have
led to a corresponding reduction in the proportion
of infants and young children existing in the
population. This may account for some part of
the diminished mortality. The improved isolation
effected by the removal of patients to hospitals