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REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR THE
YEAR 1903.
To ths Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors of the Borough of Stoke
Newington.
Gentlemen,
In a year of low death-rates generally the recorded death-rate for
the Borough was 12.3 as against 15.2 for the whole of London. Of
all the Metropolitan Boroughs, there were only two others with lower
rates, viz., Hampstead (10.0), and Lewisham (11.1). The birth-rate,
on the other hand, was the lowest I have yet recorded; only 20.9 as
against 28.5 in London generally. The zymotic death-rate, or the
death-rate from the 7 principal communicable diseases, was low, as it
always is in Stoke Newington, but it was represented by a somewhat
higher figure than that for the preceding year. This circumstance
was owing to the great prevalence of measles and whooping cough in
the Borough during the earlier months of the past year.
During 1903 there was an increase in the rate of mortality among
infants under 1 year of age, which it is difficult to wholly account for,
having regard to the climatic conditions of the past year, which were so
favourable to a low figure. It is the one unsatisfactory feature in
the vital statistics of the Borough. Hitherto this rate for Stoke
Newington has always been one of the three lowest among the
whole of the Metropolitan Boroughs, but during 1903 there were
seven others with lower figures.
The death-rates from the different infectious diseases were all low,
but the infectious sickness attack-rate of the Borough was the lowest
in the Metropolis.