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18
PROOF.
Camberwall
Report of the Medical Officer of health.
To The Worshipful the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Camberwell.
Gentlemen,
The population of the area comprised in the jurisdiction of the
London County Council at the middle of the year 1914, as estimated
by the Registrar-General, was 4,518,021. This is a little less than
the population at the same period of 1913, and it is calculated by a
different method. Previously it was estimated on the continuance
of the rate of increase which had prevailed during the inter-censal
period, 1901-1911, but in view of the fall in the rate of natural
increase since 1911, and an increase in the loss by migration, a new
estimate has been framed for the middle of last year, based upon
the returns of births, deaths, and migration. The latter factor,
taken in its wider sense, has no doubt contributed to the reduction
in the population of England as a whole, as it has also caused a
change in that of London, leading to an increase in surrounding
districts at one time purely rural, but which are now largely
occupied by people who work not only in the City proper, but also
in the adjacent parts of the County of London, which in many cases
have become trade, rather than residential, quarters, and which
consequently show a decrease.
The actual number of births for London during the 52 weeks
was 109,667, compared with 110,353 for 1912, the last year which
was reckoned as having the same number of weeks. This total has
been corrected by the inclusion of children born outside but whose
parents belong to London, and by the exclusion of those who were
indeed born within the county, but whose parents usually lived
outside its boundary.
The deaths for the same period were 64,994, compared with
65,030 for the 53 weeks of 1913, so that the mortality was really
greater than last year. The deaths in London of those who had a
fixed or usual address outside are not counted in this number, but
all those inhabitants who died outside are reckoned, including those
who died in sanatoria, lunatic asylums, and the institutions
under the control of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, irrespective
of the date of their admission. For example, a patient goes to
an asylum suffering from mental disease, and after a stay of some
years he develops phthisis. This would appear as a death from
that disease, assigned to Camberwell. The converse, of course,
equally holds good in the case of an inhabitant of some outside
district dying in one of the institutions in Camberwell under similar
conditions.
The number of inhabitants at the middle of 1914 is provisionally
reckoned as 261,828, which means that the population has increased