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6
The Holborn birth-rate was 18.3 per 1,000 in comparison with 19.2 for the
preceding year. The London rate was 24.2 in comparison with 25.2 for the
preceding year.
The Holborn death-rate was 15.0 per 1,000, the lowest reported, in comparison
with 15.7 for the preceding year. The London death-rate was 14.0 per 1,000 in
comparison with 13.8 for 1908. The lowest death-rates in previous years in
Holborn were 16.6 in 1907, 16.9 in 1905, and 17.0 in 1906. The average
death-rate for the preceding decennium was 18.8 per 1,000, and for London 16.2
per 1,000.
I may point out that in Holborn there is a very much larger proportion of
Common Lodging House accommodation than in any other Metropolitan Borough,
125 of the total of 807 deaths were of persons removed from those houses to
Infirmaries, &c. Excluding the Common Lodging House population from London,
the Holborn death-rate was only 13.1 per 1,000 compared with 13.8 for London.
The corrected infantile mortality (deaths of infants under 1 year of age) was
101 per 1,000 births, compared with 108 for London, which are both the lowest
recorded. Last year these rates were 111 and 113 respectively. For both years
the Holborn rates were lower than those for London.
The death-rate from epidemic diseases in Holborn was again very low, and for
the seventh year in succession, below that for London, viz.: 0.78 in comparison
with 1.31 for London. Both are less than the preceding year, and it is the lowest
rate recorded for Holborn.
The corrected death-rate from phthisis was l.76 per 1,000 in comparison
with 166 for 1908 and 233 for the preceding decennium. More than 30 per cent.
of the deaths were of persons who had been removed to Infirmaries from common
lodging houses. The London rate was 1.31, the lowest recorded and l.56 for the
preceding decennium.
The Local Government Board issued an Order — The Public Health
(Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908—which came into force at the beginning of the
year. This provides for the notification to Medical Officers of Health of Sanitary
Authorities, of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis occurring amongst the inmates of
Poor Law Institutions, and amongst persons under the care of District Medical
Officers, and for the taking of certain measures in such cases; and a Memorandum
respecting the latter was issued by the Medical Officer of that Board.
The number of notifications of infectious diseases was again small,
having been only 207 in comparison with a decennial average of 408. The
notification rate for Holborn was again lower than for London generally, being
3;8 per 1,000 in comparison with 6'1 for London. For each of the past
eight years the Holborn notification rate has been lower than the London rate.