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4
Public Health Department,
Lambeth Town Hall,
Brixton Hill, S.W. 2
March, 1927..
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
o] the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Once again it is my privilege to be able to report most satisfactory
statistics (vital and mortal) for the Borough for the year 1926,
representing a great saving of life and illness, as a reward for the
activities of the Council as a Health Authority, and as a justification,
for the money that has been expended out of the Rates—a maximum
of good for a minimum of expenditure.
The Registrar-General's estimated Borough of Lambeth population
for (926 (middle of the year) is 311,000, and, upon this basis, the
various general and zymotic and special death-rates are low, and
correspondingly, a credit to the Borough, as is also the infantile
mortality rate, which, however, is expressed in terms of the total
corrected deaths of infants under 1 year of age per 1,000 uncorrected
births registered (not per 1,000 estimated population, as are the general,
zymotic and special death-rates). The statistics for children under 5
years of age can only be described again as remarkable in regard to
lessened mortality—a result that was to be anticipated in view of the
great decrease in the infantile mortality rate that has been registered
during the last 30 years, even after making due allowance for the
declining birth-rate. The Maternity and Child Welfare work of the old
Parish and the new Borough (work that is now co-ordinated and
amalgamated under the newly-instituted (1918) Welfare Scheme), the
Milk Assistance Scheme, the Nursing (Infectious Diseases) Scheme
and the Municipal Milk Dep6t have all contributed to this satisfactory
result.
Tuberculosis is gradually, though slowly, declining, whilst typhoid
or " enteric" fever is, practically, a disease of the past, as is also
typhus fever.
The infantile and child mortalities, are the lowest ever recorded
in the Annals of the Borough or of the late Parish.