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the food premises number some 5,000 which include shops, stalls and
vehicles and those where food is prepared, especially restaurant and
hotel kitchens and food factories. Ice cream and its manufacture in
relation to the Heat Treatment Regulations, 1947, are also to be the
subject of comment. Details of any outbreaks of food poisoning must
be supplied. All these points relating to food receive special mention in
this report.
The population of the City estimated by the Registrar General for
1949 is 102,160 compared with an estimate of 100,900 for 1948. Next
year by the census of 1951 exact figures will be available. The war-time
census of 1939 obviously reflected abnormal conditions and it will be
interesting to study the changes which have occurred during the twenty
years that will have passed since the census of 1931. The birth rate of
12.2 reveals another fall from 13-8 in 1948,15.4 in 1947 and 15.1 in 1946.
The general death rate is again lower than the previous year 10.9 and
is below the rate for London and also that of England and Wales. The
number of infants dying before the end of the first year of life was 42;
last year it was 53. This gives an infantile mortality rate of 33.7, the
lowest rate ever recorded in Westminster. The tuberculosis death rate
was .5 per 1,000.
By way of contrast the general death rate of 15.6, infantile mortality
rate of 126 and tuberculosis death rate of 1.83 in 1900 indicate the very
great advances in the health and welfare of the inhabitants of this City
and reflect the improvements in nutrition, sobriety and knowledge of
healthy living in which the health services of the City coupled with the
spread of education have played a considerable part.
There were two maternal deaths. In both cases death followed
illegal interference with a pregnancy in women who had previously had
healthy children.
Diseases of the heart and blood vessels accounted for 412 deaths out of
a total of 1,113. Of the deaths from this cause, no fewer than 279 were
of persons 65 years and over, while 106 were of the age groups 45 to 65.
This gives some indication of the ageing of the population and the effect
of the passage of years on the mechanics of the body. Deaths from
malignant disease were 218, more than half of them in persons over 65
years of age. Respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis of the lungs,
caused 233 deaths, most of them above middle age. There were no
deaths from diphtheria. Two cases were notified, one in a man aged
25 years with no evidence of having been immunised. The second case
also occurred in an adult, a woman aged 22 years living in a hostel (no
information as to immunisation).
Measles notifications numbered 635, the largest number since 1938.
Only 65 of these required removal to hospital. The epidemic was mild
and no deaths were recorded. There were notably fewer cases of whooping
cough but with one death. Poliomyelitis and polioencephalitis accounted
for one death among 29 cases notified. This is a higher incidence than
in 1947, the year of the widespread epidemic, which seems to indicate
that the infection is likely to remain in the community. Gastro-enteritis,
(8076) a 4