View report page

6
PREFACE.
The health of the borough of Lambeth has been satisfactory
during the year, as is indicated by the statistics in the report.
Apart from a small increase in the number of deaths attributed to
influenza and a minor outbreak of Sonne dysentery in the autumn,
there has been no material difference from what may be termed
the average year.
This year again the Registrar General has calculated a comparability
factor for the district for the purpose of adjusting the
local death rate, which will enable the crude death rate to be
compared with that of the country as a whole and with that of any
other local area whose crude death rate has been similarly modified.
The population is estimated by the Registrar General to be 3,700
less than in the previous year, and it is now about the same as it
was in 1885. The births, however, in 1937 numbered 3,873, giving
a corrected rate of 14.14, compared with 9,143 births with a
corresponding rate of 33.9 per 1,000 population in 1885. On the
other hand, the infant mortality was 68 per 1,000 live births and
the crude death rate 13.06 in 1937, compared with 129 and 18.6 in
1885. The natural increase in the population by excess of births
over deaths was 257 in 1937, compared with 3,957 in 1885, which
latter figure actually exceeds the total number of births registered
in 1937.
The steady addition of duties placed year by year upon the
Public Health Department has been accelerated by the air raid
precaution scheme, and in consequence of these as well as of the
difficulties created by the enlargement of the Town Hall, there
has been a regrettable but unavoidable delay in the preparation
of this report.