View report page

7
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—-1894.
(3) That of the Kent Road Sub-district is nearly one below the figure for London,
and only 3.6 higher than that of Croydon, the healthiest of the thirty-three great
towns. This latter town showed a mortality of 13.2 per 1,000 in the year 1894.
In looking over the returns of these three sub-districts one is struck by the
fact that the general death-rate per 1000 in the Borough Road exceeds that
of the Kent Road by 19.3 per 1000, and that of the London Road by 17.5 per 1000.
This disproportion may, in my opinion, bo attributed to four causes, (1) Deaths
in public institutions, which are unequally distributed among the various subdistricts;
(2) Density of population, especially in the Borough Road Sub-district;
(3) Poverty, which is conspicuous in each of the sub-districts, but most of all in
the Borough Road; (4) Absence of open air spaces, of which there are none in the
Borough Road.
Wa will next proceed to discuss these points in detail.
(1) Deaths in public institutions. The deaths which require notice under thie
heading are those of parishioners of one sub-district who die in the hospitals of
another sub-district.
Correcting for those deaths of parishioners, drawn from the London Road and
Kent Road Sub-districts—which took place in public institutions within the Borough
Road Sub-district—the death-rate of the latter area still remains practically unchanged,
the difference being merely fractional.
(3) In my report for 1893 I showed that the south of London is the poorest part of
the metropolis; that the central portion is worse off than other parts of that
district; and that the particular sub-division which includes the Borough Road Subdistrict
is the most poverty-stricken in the whole of London.
(2 & 4) Further, the Borough Road, which has the highest death-rate of the
three sub-districts, is conspicuous for its poverty, its density of population, and its
absence of air spaces. Whereas, on the other hand, the London and the Kent Road
Sub-districts, which have the lowest death-rate, are inhabited by a less-crowded
and better-to-do class, and are better supplied with open-air spaces.
The latter may be conveniently grouped under three headings:—
(1) Public institutions occupying a large area.
(2) Broad streets.
(3) Areas, such as disused burial grounds, formally set apart as places of
recreation.
The death-rate of the 33 great towns of England and Wales, with a population of
34 4 personB to an acre, was 18.1 per 1,000, the lowest being:—