London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Wandsworth 1873

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]

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71
The registered deaths, it will be observed, were
rather unequally divided as to the sex of the deceased
persons, viz., 74 females to only 51 males.
Of the 125 deaths 39 were of infants and young children
19 of whom died under one year, 19 also from 1 to 5 years, and
1 from 5 to 10 years. In the table of the previous report the
number of infants and children who succumbed during the
year will be found to have been 60. The difference is
striking, and the statistical residt very satisfactory.
Rather more than the average of aged people at 80 and
upwards died during the past year, the oldest of the
deceased having reached the advanced age of 91 years.
The mortality at the intermediate ages, viz., from 10 to
20, from 20 to 40, from 40 to 60, and from 60 to 80, was
in the aggregate 27 less than the number noted in 1872.
Then as to the social positions of the deceased persons, it
is satisfactory to find that the industrial or working classes
succumbed in much fewer numbers than in the year preceding
the one under notice. In the comparisons made in
this respect in former reports it has been often shown
that the deaths amongst the working classes were, year
by year, becoming fewer, relatively to the numbers
registered amongst the classes above them. Amongst the
pauper population exclusively (Vide Table V. Appendix.)
the proportion of deaths to the number of cases treated
will be seen to have been exceedingly small, viz., 7 in 206.
In the preceding year the proportion was 15 deaths in 282
cases treated. In whatever light then we may regard
these statistics they will be found to indicate very considerable
improvement in the social and sanitary condition
of the poor.
Increase of Population.—Birth-rate,—Death-rate,—
&c.—The number of children born in the sub-district
within the year was 320 (168 males and 152 females)
which is 41 in excess of the number registered in 1872.
The excess of births over deaths, which indicates the
natural increase of the population, was 195. The Registrar