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[The subjoined " Foreword " is transcribed from the Annual Report for the year 1905.]
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. 140-2, 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 110 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 210 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, my first year of office, the population has increased
by 59,000; 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 144 in the last five years, a decrease of 15 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 excellent 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 of, 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 Crbches, and provision
of a 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.