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7
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Pancras Road, N.W. 1.
July, 1922.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors op the
Metropolitan Borough of St. Pancras.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you the Sixty-Sixth Annual Report on the vital statistics
and health conditions of the Sanitary District of St. Pancras, including particulars of the year's
work of the Public Health Department. It is the ninth annual report which it has been my duty
to submit.
The year 1921 was remarkable for two circumstances, viz., the great prevalence of
unemployment, and the exceptionally severe heat and drought. Both of these conditions might
have been expected to react unfavourably on health conditions, and it is all the more satisfactory
therefore to be able to report that the number of St. Pancras deaths recorded during the year
was smaller than in any former year. The rate of mortality amongst children under one year
of age (76 per 1,000 births) was slightly higher than in the previous year, when the figure was
73, but was lower than in any former year. The increase in infantile mortality was due to the
prevalence of diarrhoea as a result of the hot and dry summer. The number of deaths from
that disease was, however, much smaller than might have been anticipated by comparison
with former hot years, and there is reason to believe that if other conditions had been as they
were ten years earlier the climatic events of the year would have produced much greater mortality.
There is no doubt, however, that the rate of infantile mortality is still higher than it
need be, and that many of the deaths of infants from diarrhoeal and other diseases are preventible.
There was considerable prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria in 1921. Owing to
the great mildness of the former disease the mortality was small, but there were more deaths
from diphtheria than in any recent year. Apart from these diseases and summer diarrhoea
there was no special epidemic prevalence during the year. The decline in the mortality from
tuberculosis which appeared in the last two years was continued in 1921.
The details of the work done in the Public Health Department in the course of the year
are embodied in the report. With regard to staff, I have to record the departure of Dr. Calthrop,
Tuberculosis Officer, and Dr. Miall-Smith, Assistant Medical Officer. Their positions had not
been filled permanently at the end of the year. It is with great regret, also, that I have to refer