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IX
Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary
Condition of the City of Westminster.
19 3 6.
Mr. Mayor, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit my annual report on the Health and Sanitary Condition of the
City during 1936. The report is drawn up in accordance with Circular 1561 of the
Minister of Health and, as in previous years, follows the lines laid down by the
Minister as regards the matters on which he desires to be informed.
This report has been prepared during the time ever to be associated with the
Coronation of their Gracious Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. It
was thought, therefore, that it might be of interest to add to the usual features by
introducing a few notes by certain officers of the department relating to the special
branches for which they are responsible. In particular, Mr. John Sanderson, the
Senior Sanitary Inspector, who joined the department in the days of the St. Martin's
Vestry, has contributed a retrospective note on the changing conditions during his
forty years' service, begun in the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
Vital Statistics.
The birth rate has increased slightly from 8.3 in 1935 to 8.5 in 1936; on the
whole a little encouraging. The former figure was the lowest ever recorded in the
City and it may be that the downward trend has been arrested. During the past
eighteen months the fall in the national birth rate has been causing concern and the
Minister has set up a special committee under the chairmanship of Professor Carr
Saunders to investigate the causes and to report on the effects. It does not seem
long ago since the benefits of birth control were being widely canvassed as a means
of social betterment, but the tide seems to be receding. The death rate, however,
is greater than last year, 11.9 as compared with 11.5 (crude), due in some measure
to increased winter deaths among the elderly from Influenza and Pneumonia. Fewer
deaths among infants are recorded, giving a rate of 65.8 as compared with 72 in
1935. There was far less wastage among the illegitimate infants, which seems to
indicate that the Council's Maternity and Child Welfare services were able to get
in closer touch with this somewhat elusive element of society.
Infectious Disease.
As was expected 1936 was a "measles" year, 590 cases as compared with 195
in 1935, but the death rate was considerably lower than for England and Wales.
No deaths occurred from scarlet fever, the case rate being about the same. As
regards diphtheria, there was again a substantial reduction in the number of cases
and four deaths as compared with five last year. Enteric fever, with 12 cases,
remains about the same with no deaths. There were fewer cases of mumps, but more