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REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1906.
To the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors of the Metropolitan
Borough of Stoke Newington
Gentlemen,
The vital statistics of the Borough for the year 1906 are very
satisfactory. The general death-rate of 11.5 was the lowest recorded
since the formation of the Borough. With the exception of
that for the Borough of Hampstead, it is the lowest in the
Metropolis, and it compares very favourably with the rate of 15.1
for the Metropolis as a whole.
In my last Annual Report, for the year 1905, I drew attention
to the circumstance that the deaths among infants under one year
of age were the highest recorded since the formationl of the Borough,
and that they furnished a rate of 124.7 to every 1000 births.
During the year 1906, however, the rate amounted to only 108, and
only four other Metropolitan Boroughs had a lower rate. At the
present day the effort to stem the wastage of infant lives
constitutes the most important branch of public health
work. This is now generally recognised, and a very
large proportion of sanitary authorities are making
special efforts in this direction. To this end they have
obtained the services of women-workers, who are mostly salaried
officials of the sanitary authority. During the year, five ladies have
been giving their services voluntarily to the Borough; under my
direction and with the capable assistance of Miss Gardner, of the
Charity Organisation Society, they have visited a considerable
number of the poorer mothers immediately after their confinement,
and followed up their preliminary visit by others, which have beep
as frequent as the circumstances appeared to warrant. I have good
reason to know that this branch of work has been of great value;