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REPORT.
Gentlemen,
I have the honor to present my twenty-fourth Annual
Report as your Medical Officer. It deals with the vital statistics
of Bethnal Green during the year 1899. In the appendix will be
found the statistical tables on the forms prescribed by the Local
Government Board, and also other tables which shew the present
condition of the district, from a health point of view, as compared
with that of previous years.
For the purposes of my report I take the population of the district
at 129,200. This estimate is identical with that for 1898 and for the
two preceding years. The Registrar-General is of opinion that
the population of Bethnal Green is decreasing, for he estimates it at
128,938 only. My knowledge of local conditions, however, leads
me to the conclusion that the contention of the Somerset House
authorities is incorrect, and that if our population be not increasing,
it is certainly not diminishing.
A census is to be taken in March, 1901, so that the correctness
of my opinion will very shortly be confirmed or disproved.