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PUBLIC HEALTH AND HOUSING DEPARTMENT,
ROYAL HILL, GREENWICH.
October, 1917.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich.
Gentlemen,
The Local Government Board request that the "Annual Report
of the Medical Officer of Health" for this year ahould be typewritten
and many details omitted. The Local Government Board
wish suitable arrangements to be made for the careful preservation
of all records in order that after the termination of the
war a report can he printed dealing more fully with the period
from the beginning of 1916 to the end of the last complete year,
giving separate statistics for each year.
At the beginning of the year Mr. Peters, the chief clerk to
the Public Health Department, was called up in his group for
Molitary Service, and shortly afterwards Mr. Mobsby enlisted for
service, so that the office work has been carried on through the
year by a temporary staff. Fortunately Miss Merricka, who has
carried out the duties of temporary chief clerk since Mr.Mobsby's
enlistment, has shown great ability and prevented any dislocation
in the routine of the office work.
The Registrar General has adopted the following estimates of
population for the calculation of the death rate and birth rate:-
For the death rate - 94,453
,, ,, birth ,, - 102,765.
The Registrar General states that the former is an estimate of the
civilian population; the latter of the total population based on
the assumption that the ratic between the total and the civilian
population is the same in the Borough as in England and Wales as
a whole. With a view to approximation to the population amongst
which the births have occurred, the total population of England
and Walea for this purpose has been calculated by adding to the
published estimates for 1914 the natural increase up to the
middle of the year 1916.
The Statistics for the Borough for the year 1915 are in
most particulars more satisfactory than those for 1915. The number
of deaths is smaller, and the death rate as calculated from
the population allocated to the Borough by the Registrar General
is lower.
The number of deaths from Zymotic disease and the number of
notifications of infectious disease and the corresponding rates
per 1,000 of the population are lower-witn the exoeption of
Diphtheria, in which a considerable increase is shown, though
fortunately the Borough escaped anything approaohing an epidemic.
The Infantile Mortality rate, which is calculated from the
number of deaths under one year of age and the number of births
registered (not from the general population), shows a gratifying
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