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Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary
Condition of the City of Westminster,
1908.
To the
Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors
of the City of Westminster.
My Lords and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit to you my Annual Report on the
Health and Sanitary Condition of the City of Westminster during the
year 1908.
Returns required by the Local Government Board, and particulars
relating to Factories and Workshops required by the Home
Office, are incorporated therein.
It is somewhat difficult as the years get further away from the last
census period to estimate the correct population of Westminster thereon,
or make the usual calculations. This year the Registrar-General has
made two calculations by different methods, and there is a difference of
5,000 between the results. Under such circumstances birth and death
rates cannot be regarded as reliable, and any conclusions drawn from a
consideration of them must be guarded.
Apparently the year as a whole has been a healthy one—in the
early months the weather was cold and changeable, influenza was
prevalent and the number of deaths recorded was up to the average,
but the coolness of the summer tended to keep down diseases of an
infective character. The mildness of the later months, however, had
an opposite effect, and scarlet fever especially was extremely prevalent
in Westminster.
For the whole year the death rate of London is estimated at
13.8 per thousand persons living, as compared with 15'2 the average of