London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1908
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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6 sickness.
SICKNESS.
After making the necessary deductions for duplicate certificates, the cases reported to
the Department under the provisions of Section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
numbered 970, an increase of 66 cases above the total for the preceding year. A reference to
Table 4 will show that the whole of that increase was due to scarlet fever, of which disease
the cases numbered 681 as compared with 579 in 1907. With the exception of puerperal
fever, the notifications of which were equal in the two years, all notified diseases, other than
scarlet fever, were less prevalent last year. Contrasting last year's morbidity rates with the
mean rates for 1903-07 (Table 4), it appears that with the exception of membranous croup
(rate, 1908, 0'02; mean, 0.01) and scarlet fever (rate, 1908, 4.43; mean, 3.17), all the rates
for last year were lower than the respective means, but that the increase in that for scarlet
fever was sufficient to increase the total rate from a mean of 5.35 to a rate of 6.32 last year.
TABLE 4.
Notifications.
Padoington.
Corrected for duplicate certificates only.
| Smallpox. | Diphtheria. | Membranous Croup. | Erysipelas | Fevers. | Totals. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarlet. | Enteric. | Continued. | Puerperal | ||||||
| Cases certified — | |||||||||
| 1908 | - | 142 | 4 | 105 | 681 | 31 | 1 | 6 | 970 |
| 1907 | - | ||||||||
| Morbidity Rates | |||||||||
| 1908 | - | 0.92 | 0.02 | 0.68 | 4.43 | 0.20 | 0.00 | 0.03 | 6.32 |
| 1903-07 | |||||||||
| 0'00=a rate less than 0'01 per 1,000. | |||||||||
A comparison of the morbidity rates in the Metropolis and the districts adjacent to
Paddington, for last year, with the mean rates for the preceding quinquennium (based on the
figures published by the Registrar-General) is given in Table 5. In Kensington only was last
year's rate for diphtheria (1.27) above the mean (1.02). Lower rates were recorded last year
in Hampstead (067) and Marylebone (0.91) than in Paddington (0.97). The rates for scarlet
fever were in every instance in excess of the mean rates, and last year's rate for the Borough
(4.42) was exceeded only by those for the Metropolis (4.51) and Willesden (4.76). In
Hampstead, last year's rate for enteric fever (0.26) was equal to the mean, but in all the other
districts, below. Last year's rate for Paddington (0.20) was the lowest of the series. The
1908 rates from puerperal fever were above the means in Kensington, Marylebone and
Hampstead, equal to the mean in Westminster and below in the other districts. The
Paddington rate for 1908 (0.03) was the lowest of any of the year's rates.