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2
To His Worship the Mayor, the Aldermen and the Members of
the Council of the Borough of Hornsey.
Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you my Report on the Health of the
Borough of Hornsey for the year 1904.
The vital statistics of the Borough are extremely favourable.
The general death-rate is almost the lowest on record, and easily
the lowest of all the large towns. The infantile mortality is also
very low, compared with other districts, although much of the
present mortality is due to preventible causes.
The incidence of infectious disease has been below the average.
Almost the only point to which one cannot allude with feelings
of satisfaction is the increased mortality from tuberculosis. Probably
from 250 to 300 persons in the Borough are suffering from
tuberculosis, 75 per cent. of these being affected with tuberculosis
of the lungs, or consumption, as it is popularly called.
In some towns a scheme for the voluntary notification of cases
of consumption has been adopted. It has been the experience of
most towns that a purely voluntary scheme largely fails, because,
as long as notification is not compulsory, it is almost confined to
poor law patients, and patients in the very poorest districts. This
means that in Hornsey such a scheme would be almost inoperative.
Much is to be hoped from the establishment of a Sanatorium,
such as the proposed Middlesex Sanatorium, and a scheme of voluntary
notification of consumption may be adopted in conjunction
with this, with a better prospect of doing good.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
HAROLD COATES.