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CAM 41
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Camberwell, S.E.5.
1st July, 1935.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the health
and sanitary circumstances of the Borough.
This report has been prepared in accordance with Ministry of
Health Circular 1,417, which indicates the lines to be followed with
regard to the contents and arrangement of the Annual Report of
Medical Officers of Health for 1934.
The Public Health Department which was accommodated at
35, Brunswick Square, Camberwell, for the past twelve years is now
established in the new Town Hall, an arrangement which is satisfactory
from every point of view.
The year 1934 will be remembered as the year during which the
Council, in collaboration with the London County Council, started a
campaign of slum clearance in Camberwell, and this campaign is still
being vigorously pursued.
The birth rate still further declined during 1934, the rate
per 1,000 of the estimated resident population being 13.22, which is
the lowest ever recorded in Camberwell. The comparative figure for
1933 was 13.32.
The death rate remained practically unchanged, viz., 12.31 as
compared with 12.33 in the previous year. There was also a slight
fall in the tuberculosis death rate from 1.OO to 0.97 per thousand
estimated resident population.
It is particularly gratifying to record, that the maternal
death rate fell to the extremely low figure of 2.46 per thousand
total live and still-births.
On the other hand the infantile mortality rate rose from 49 to 67
per thousand births, and to some extent is accounted for by the
increase in the number of deaths from pneumonia (all forms).
Except for the biennial measles epidemic which started towards
the end of 1933 and continued during the early months of 1934, there
was no excessive occurrence of infectious disease during any period
of the year.