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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF
HEALTH FOR THE YEAR 1904,
To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Commons
of the Corporation of London.
Public Health Department,
Guildhall, E.C.,
March, 1905.
Gentlemen,
In presenting my fifth Annual Report as Medical Officer of Health
for the City of London, I would refer to some of the more important work
in which your Staff has been engaged during the year.
One feature of the year was the absence—with one exception referred to
later—of any incident calculated to disturb the public mind. The death rate
was the lowest ever recorded in the City, and the number of cases of infectious
diseases reported was also the smallest since notification was made compulsory.
It is satisfactory to find that no case of illness attributable to the consumption
of shellfish purchased in the City was notified during the year. In this
connection it is interesting to learn from some recent experiments made by
Dr. Klein, on behalf of the Fishmongers' Company, that oysters contaminated
with specific infective bacilli possess the property of ridding themselves of
such micro-organisms within a short period when relaid in clean waters.
Other shellfish were found to cleanse themselves under similar conditions,
but more slowly.
Some references to the official inspection and marking of meat exported
from Holland and Denmark to this country will be found on p. 102, while
the whole of that portion of the Report relating to the control of food supplies
may, perhaps, appeal to those interested in the subject.
The Sale of Food and Drugs Acts have continued to be actively administered,
with the effect of reducing the proportion of adulterated samples from 1311
per cent, in 1901 to 5.5 per cent, in 1904. In fairness to the Citizens it
should be pointed out that the chief offenders are not natives of this country,
and some figures illustrating this point are given on p. 122.