Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the last three-quarters of the year 1894
This page requires JavaScript
17
of the community (with whom infantile mortality is always at its
highest) and despite improved general sanitation, the rate of
mortality under 1 year of age will continue to bear a very high
proportion to the general death-rate; but the great discrepancy
shown between the rates of different London parishes furnishes
abundant evidence that there are many causes at work, acting
unequally in the different districts which are preventable. The
preventable diseases which play such havoc among those of tender
years are mostly engendered by either maternal neglect, unhealthy
surroundings, or improper feeding. Infantile mortality has been
seen to be exceptionally low in this parish, and in Table A4l
have set forth the causes of such mortality. It is satisfactory to
note that there have only been 3 deaths from measles and whooping
cough—two diseases which, owing to the fatal tendency there is to
treat them as trivial, and consequently to delay in taking proper
precautions and seeking medical advice, generally together furnish
a higher mortality rate than small-pox. diphtheria, and typhoid
fever combined.
TABLE A 4.
Second Quarter. | Third Quarter. | Fourth Quarter. | Totals. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Premature Birth | 5 | |||
Diseases of Lungs (including Atelectasis) | ||||
Tuberculosis | ||||
Atrophy | ... | 3 | ||
Diarrhoea | ... | ... | ||
Convulsions | ||||
Whooping Cough | l | 2 | ||
Measles | ... | ... | l | |
Other causes | ... | |||
B