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TO HIS WORSHIP THE MAYOR, THE ALDERMEN,, AND COUNCILLORS OF THE
BOROUGH OF PADDINGTON
Gentalmen,
I have the honour to submit herewith my Report on the health of the Borough
and the work of the Public Health Department during the past year, the twelth report
submited by me.
It affords me much pleasure to be able to record, a continued decrease in the prevalence
Health (London) Act, .1891, and a very low death rate. The. only matters for regret in
connection with the vital statistics are the low, and still decreasing birth rate and the high
prevalence Of measles and whooping cough. As regards the first, some consolation may
be derived from a diminished infantile mortality. The rate as given in this Report is lower
than any on record in the Borough, except that for 1903, and but for a change in the manner
of recording the births, probably lower than that. I anticipate that much good will accrue
from the efforts to assist and instruct mothers which were initiated during the year. In this
work the services of the Student Women Inspectors have been of great use.
In comparing death rates in different districts the proportions of the two sexes at
different ages require to be taken into consideration. Factors to correct for these differences
have been available for deaths from all.causes, phthisis and cancer. During the past autumn
Licalculated corresponding factors for the principal zymotic diseases—viz., smallpox, scarlet
fever, diphtheria, enteric fever, measles and whooping cough. The corrected rates for this
Borough and the Adjacent Districts will be found under each disease.
A very striking demonstration has been given of the need of promptly removing cases
of enteric fever to hospital when the home surroundings are such as to make it impossible to
take the. precautions necessary to prevent the direct transference of infection from the patient
to those living in the house or tenement. It is very generally thought that this disease can
be kept at home with safety—an opinion in which I shared until a few years ago.
The differences in the rates of infantile mortality observed in the Wards and smaller
Selected Areas point to the need for energetic action. Success in this direction depends on
prompt information of the births of the children. It is therefore a matter of satisfaction that
some of the midwives practising in the District have agreed to report the cases attended by
them to the County Council, and that that Authority forwards the particulars to each
district. The information is, however, very partial, and can only be made complete by
making it a statutory obligation for every.birth to be reported (say) within forty.eight hours
to the medical officer of health of the district in which it occurs. Civil registration would
remain as at present, and with the introduction of a preliminary notification would probably
I would direct your especial attention to the proof of the benefits accruing from a
systematic supervision of houses let to more than one family, which is afforded by the
comparisons of the vital statistics for the "Clarendon Street Area." for the past 10 years.