View report page

REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1919.
Dear Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough oj Islington.
It affords me great satisfaction in presenting my Annual Report for 1919
to be able to congratulate you on the healthy condition of the borough as
judged by its low death-rate, which, since 1838, has only been as low on two
occasions, while at the same time the death-rate from the infectious diseases
has been the lowest on record. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the
reduction of the death-rate during the last thirty years has been due in a
large measure to the steady administrative efforts of the Public Health
Department.
It is also most satisfactory to find that the infantile mortality rate was
also the lowest ever recorded in Islington. I am forced to attribute this
pleasing fact to the good, indeed most efficient, work performed by the
Maternity and Child Welfare Centres, whose promoters I had encouraged to
cast their lot in the borough, because I knew there was room for a great improvement
in the death-rate amongst infants. There is room—much room—
yet; and I, therefore, trust that these Child Welfare Centres will receive every
encouragement, financial and otherwise, not only from the public but from the
Council. They need it. They are doing a great work, the possibilities of which
are only limited by their resources.
Last year (1919) the mortality among infants under one year of age in
attendance at the four centres was only 32.3 per 1,000, whereas it was 117 per
1,000 among the infants whose parents did not avail themselves of the services
of the centres.