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6
The Holborn death-rates for the past two years, whieh were practically the
same, viz., 17.0 and 16.9 per 1000, are the lowest death-rates recorded for Holborn;
the average death-rate for the preceding decenniura having been 20.3 per 1000.
The lowest death-rates for previous years were 17.9 in 1904, 18.4 in 1903, and
20.0 in 1901. The London death-rate was 15.1 per 1000, the same as for 1905.
The corrected infantile mortality was 128 deaths under one year per 1000
births in comparison with 131 for London; in each case slightly higher than in
1905, when the numbers were 126 and 129 respectively.
The death-rate from zymotic diseases in Holborn was again very low and below
that for London, viz., 1.51 in comparison with 193.
The death-rate from phthisis (consumption) has again diminished from 2.65
per 1000 to 2.12 per 1000. On the other hand the London rate has slightly
increased from l.42 to 1.44.
The number of notifications of infectious diseases, excluding the voluntary
notification of consumption, was only 276.
The notification rate for Holborn was again much less than that for London
generally, having been 4.9 per 1000 in comparison with 7.5 per 1000.
In previous Annual Reports, under the heading Scarlet Fever, I have
emphasised the importance of every isolation hospital being well supplied with small
isolation wards, in fact that fever hospitals should be constructed so as to secure
strict isolation as far as possible as contrasted with segregation in large wards, on
account of the great difficulties of diagnosis in many fever cases, and the co-existence
of two or more infectious diseases in the same patient, and in my report for 1905
I gave details of the excellent results that had been obtained at the Pasteur
Hospital, Paris, in which the cubicle system has been adopted. I am therefore
very pleased to report that the Metropolitan Asylums Board has had two of the
large wards of the South-Western Hospital converted into cubicle wards, and I
gladly availed myself of the kind invitation of the Chairman of the Board to inspect
them. Some details of these are given under the heading Scarlet Fever, Errors in
Diagnosis, on pages 20-22.
In my Annual Report for the year 1903, I reported that the Metropolitan
Asylums Board had considered the question of the proposed establishment of
sanatoria for consumptive patients and had referred the matter to the Local Government
Board. The latter, in a letter of the 22nd March, 1906, stated that,
having given the matter the most careful consideration, the Board were of opinion
that the information then before them did not appear to afford sufficient justification
for the very heavy outlay which would be involved in the proposal.
Further details respecting consumption and the voluntary notification thereof
are given on pages 26-28.