View report page

A Foreword.—The year 1905 completed half-a-century of Sanitary administration
in London by popularly elected local authorities : between 1856-1900 by the
late Vestries: between 1901-1905 by the Metropolitan Borough Councils. This fact
lends additional interest to the statistical Tables relative to Kensington, set out in
Appendix II., pp. 129-131, which show (inter alia)—
That- during the fifty years the population of the Royal Borough increased by
122,000, viz., from 57,000 to 179,000;
That comparing the last quinquennial period (1901-1905) with the first (1856-1860)
the birth rate has fallen from an average of 30.7 per 1,000 persons living, to
19.7—a decrease of 11.0 per 1,000, partly accounted for by the disproportion
in the relative numbers of the two sexes ;
That the general death-rate has fallen 6.6, viz., from 21.0 to 14.4 per 1,000, and
That the death-rate from the principal diseases of the zymotic class has fallen
2.0, viz., from 3.5 to 1.5 per 1,000.
It may be added that since 1871 the population has increased by 58,000; whilst,
comparing the first with the last quinquennial period, there has been a
decrease of 11.7 per 1,000 in the birth-rate; of 4.5 per 1,000 in the general
death-rate, and of 1.46 per 1,000 in the zymotic death-rate.
The infantile mortality rate, i.e., the proportion of deaths under one year of age
to 1,000 registered births, which averaged 159 in the quinquennium 1871-1875,
was 148 in the last five years, a decrease of 11 per 1,000 : but it is far too high.
The greatly reduced mortality from infectious diseases in the last 35 years is largely
attributable to—
(1) The provision of adequate and free hospital accommodation under a single
authority, to which facile admission is obtainable without loss of social status;
(2) The removal of sufferers from small-pox to hospitals without London;
(3) The establishment of admirable land and river ambulance services, and
(4) The compulsory notification of infectious disease.
As regards the future the immediate objects to be aimed at seem to be, mainly, the
following—
(1) Compulsory notification, and sanatorium provision for persons suffering from
Consumption ;
(2) Transference of administration of the Vaccination Act to the Public Health
authorities, and compulsory re-vaccination at school-age ;
(3) Reduction of child mortality—
(a) By appointment of Health Visitors, establishment of Creches, and provision
of pure milk supply,
(b) By exclusion from Public Elementary schools of children under five years of
age, and institution of Day Nurseries, or Nursery schools, under medical
supervision.
(4) Establishment of a comprehensive Metropolitan Ambulance Service.