View report page

10
of those who though living in other districts have their place of work in
Westminster. There is also the considerable and fluctuating body of
tourists and other visitors which, with those who come into the City
for occasions such as shopping not being regarded as "non-resident
citizens," should not figure in any estimate of the day population. The
numbers who flock into Westminster for amusement and pleasure in the
evenings or at week-ends are likewise so variable and so variously
distributed that no attempt to compute them is possible. Nevertheless
the Public Health service of the City has definite responsibilities towards
these non-residents as it has towards the resident population. It is
important that good standards should be maintained in the restaurants
where these thousands of people have meals and, equally important,
that the food consumed should be wholesome and of good quality. It
is also a duty of the Public Health Department to ensure that conditions
in places of amusement, including catering arrangements, are satisfactory
as regards hygiene and sanitation.
The birth rate has fallen again from 12.2 to 11.9. This corresponds
to the falling birth rate throughout the country after the high peak of
the first three post-war years. Infantile mortality at 35.17 is slightly
higher than in 1949 (33.7). Whereas the death rate for legitimate infants
had improved slightly over 1949, 33.12 per thousand as compared with
33.3. There was a higher mortality among the illegitimate, namely
52.2, compared with 36.8 in 1949. One hundred and thirty-four
illegitimate infants were born in 1950, but during that year seven died.
In 1949, 136 illegitimate children were born and 4 infants under one
year of age died. This accounts for the rise in the illegitimate infantile
mortality from 36.8 to 52,2.
The general death rate at 10.16 is again lower than in the previous
year (10.9). Diseases of the heart and blood vessels accounted for 344
deaths as compared with 412 in 1949. In this group 233 were persons of
65 years and over; the corresponding figure for 1949 was 279. Deaths
from malignant disease were 241, last year 218, and more than half
occurred in persons of 65 years and over. The tuberculosis death rate
.37 per 1,000 was less than that for 1949 (.5 per 1,000).
Maternal Mortality: Last year two women died from puerperal
causes (the result of illegal abortion). In 1950 one woman, aged 42 years,
died. The death certificate was in these terms, "uraemia, malignant
hypertension following toxaemia of pregnancy in 1945." Five years
seems a long time for this to be attributable to her confinement. Apart
from this case there were no deaths recorded following childbirth.
Measles notifications numbered 356, about half of those notified in
1949 which was a measles year. Six cases of diphtheria were notified,
but of those four were re-diagnosed as tonsillitis and as regards the
remaining two, a man of 60 years and a child of 5 years, there was no
record of immunisation. There were no fatalities.
Two hundred and forty-two confirmed cases of whooping cough
were notified and one child under one year of age died. Nineteen cases
of poliomyelitis were notified, but of these six were subsequently rediagnosed
as not suffering from this infection. Last year there were