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Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT.
FOR THE YEAR 1905.
PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
Town Hall, Hackney, N.E.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.
Gentlemen,
I beg herewith to present my Fourteenth Annual
Report on the Public Health of the Borough of Hackney. The
year 1905 has been a very satisfactory one on the whole from a
public health point of view compared with previous years. Infectious
disease was less prevalent last year in the Borough than during the
previous year, the total number of cases notified being 1,866,
compared with 2,426 during 1904. The general mortality rate shows
a considerable diminution compared with the year 1904, the rate for
1905 being 15.01 per 1,000 living persons. The death rate from
infectious disease was also low, being 0.37 per 1,000 persons living.
With the diminution in the general mortality there was also, I am
pleased to report, a proportional diminution in the infantile mortality,
this being 140 per 1,000 births against 155 per 1,000 births during
1904.
I do not expect, however, the infant mortality will much
improve until some more serious endeavours are made by public
authorities to bring home to mothers the importance of the
proper feeding of infants during the first 12 months of life. The
increase of artificial feeding at the expense of maternal feeding