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

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London County Council 1904

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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6
condition of the teeth and a general estimate of the personal cleanliness and sufficiency of clothing
as a basis for determining the home conditions of neglect or otherwise from external evidence. The
teacher of each class added an estimate of mental capacity. Each case which after the determination
of the primary inquiry showed any marked deviation from the normal was specially investigated
with the help of the Head Master.

The results of the measurements are given in the following table :—

Age.Due of Birth. Year and Quarter.No.Combined Weight.Average Weight.Combined Height.Average Height.
Kilogrammes (1 Kilo =2.2 lb.).Centimetres (2.5=1 inch).
7 - 7⅓1.1897 &4,18961529219.41748116.5
7½— 83 & 2, 18962346120.62562111.4
8 — 8½1.1896 & 4,18952452021.72766115.3
8½— 93 & 2, 18953885922.64417116.3
9 — 9½1.1895 & 4,189429668233482120.1
9½—103 & 2, 18943381624.74098124.2
10 —l0½1.1894 & 4,18933385325.84139125.4
10½—113 & 2, 189338100726.54797126.2
11 —11½1.1893 & 4,18922979427.43726128.5
11½—123 & 2, 18923295329.74243132.6
12—12½1.1892 & 4,189134103130.34570134.4
12½—133 & 2, 189122681312954134.3
13—13½1.1891 & 4,18903098632.84147138.2
13½—143 & 2, 18902070735.42829141.5
141.18904147.9...576.5...

For Diagram I, see page 5.
Taking clothing as the best indication, from external evidence, of poverty grading, the boys
were given marks from 1 to 5, according as conditions passed from the very worst to the very
best.
No. Percentage.
1. The clothing of the scantiest possible—e.g., one ragged coat buttoned up and
practically nothing found beneath it, and boots either absent or represented
by a mass of rags tied upon the feet 30 7.4
2. Clothing insufficient to retain animal heat, and needing urgent remedy ; boots
leaking 141 34.8
3. Clothing poor, but passable ; an old and perhaps ragged suit, with some attempt
at proper underclothing—usually of flannelette 187 45.9
4. Well clad. Stuff suit, good boots, with a flannel under-garment, or a guernsey ;
poor, but sufficient 48 11.8
5. Very well clad 1 —
The 30 boys of the first class showed considerable failure to reach the average weight for
their age of the school; the average shortage per boy for his age being as much as .7 kilogram. The
effect upon weight was more striking than upon height, as the average failure in height was
1 centimetre. The 141 boys of the second class worked out at exactly the average. The well-clad
boys of the 4th and 5th class (49) showed an average excess per age-weight of .54 kilogram and
age-height of 1.8 centimetres.
Cleanliness.—Want of cleanliness may be next taken as evidence of home neglect. The
marking again was from 1 to 5, as from the very worst to the very best.
No. Percentage.
1. Very dirty and verminous 45 11.0
2. Clothes and body dirty, but not verminous 141 34.7
3. Passably clean for boys 172 42.5
4. Clean, above the average, for boys 48 12.0
5. Unexceptionable —
Here, again, the very lowest class fell distinctly short of the average age-weight for each boy.
The 45 verminous boys averaged less by .55 kilos, and 1.1 centimetres than the average weight and
height for each age of the school. The second class worked out to exactly normal, while the
48 clean boys were considerably above the average height—to as much as 1.7 centimetres.
The above results tend to show perhaps no more than the effect of poverty, although the
excessive shortage of weight in the worst clad class suggests that insufficiency of clothing is a